CANADA : 

A VIEW OF THE IMPORTANCE ^^ 

BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES ; 

SHEWING 

Their Extensive and Improveable Resources 

AND POINTING OUT 

THE GREAT AND UNPRECEDENTED ADVANTAGES 

WHICH haVe been allowed 

To the Americans over our own Colonists; 

TOGETHER WITH 

THE GREAT SACRIFICES WHICH HAVE BEEN MADE 

BY OUR 

LATE COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS 

or THE 

COMMERCE AND CARRYING -TRADE 

OF 

GREAT BRITAIN ^ 

TO THE ^^ 

JIntteD ^tmsx 

ALSO EXHIBITING 

THE POINTS NECESSARY TO BE KEPT IN VIEW 

FOR THE 

FUTURE ENCOURAGEMENT OF BRITISH SHIPPING 

AND FOR 

THE PROTECTION AND SUPPORT 

OF THE 

COMMERCIAL INTERESTS OF GREAT BRITAIN 

AND HER 

NORTH-AMERICAN COLONIES : 

ADDRESSED TO 

THE RIGHT HON. GEORGE ROS&, 

(Sfc. S)^c. Sfc. 

BY DAVID ANDERSON. 



LONDON: 

PRINTED FOR J. M. RICHARDSON, 23, CORNHILL, 
OPPOSITE THE ROYAL EXCHANGE. 

1814. 




By transfer 

OCT 6 1915 



.^€^^^^>. 




.^ 



\- 



Sfarcfaant and Galabin, Printers, Ingram-Coart, 

Fenchurdi-Street, London. 



^ k"-^ contents. 



y 



y 



PREFACE IX 

Address to the British ship-owners and British colonists xi 
Introductory letter to the Right Hon. George Rose, &c. xiii 
General observations on the British North- American 

provinces, shipping aiid coramer(;ial interests, &c. 1 
Of the present state of our American colonies, particu- 
larly the Canadas ... ^ fi ....... ^ * . /• 36 

Quality of the soil of Upper and Lower Canada 37 

Climate 41 

Inhabitants 46 

State of agriculture • 52 

Population, and number of acres of cleared land 56 

Quantity of grain produced 58 

Canadian process in the management of flax 60 

Concerning the cultivation of hemp in Canada » 63 

Articles of export from the British American provinces 69 
Of the enormous sacrifice of our shipping and com- 
merce to the United States, occasioned by the 
great and unjust advantages allowed them over our 

own colonists, &c, 75 

Of the relaxation of our navigation-laws to the United 

States 78 

Of the admission of the produce of the United States 
into the United Kingdom at the same rate of duties 

as that of our own colonies 108 

Of the unreasonable advantages allowed to Americ^pjP 
ships in the countervailing duties charged by the 
British and United States governments respectively 119 
Of the inequality of the amount of the duties charged 

upon the lumber which we import in general ...... 137 



VI CONTENTS. 



Of the admission of enemies property by licence ...... 142 

Of the high price of our ships and the great expense at 
which they are navigated, compared with the foreign 
ships with which they have to come in competition 

for freight ...... 163 

Of the extensive, valuable, and improveable, resources 
and capabilities possessed by our American pro- 
vinces, as respects our shipping and commercial 

interests • • • • • • • • • • 169 

Quebec oak timber • ibid. 

Pine timber • • • • ♦ 172 

Masts 174 

Deals ....• 175 

Staves ••• 178 

The British North-American colonies capable of sup- 
plying the mother-country and her other colonies 

with timber ••••!• 1^^ 

Capability of our North-American provinces to supply 
our West-Indian settlements with agricultural 
produce, such as flour, bread, grain, provisions, 

&c. 199 

Our Canadian provinces capable of producing hemp 

and flax sufiicieiit to supply the mother-country • • 230 

Conclusion • 236 

The vast importance of our American colonies ibid. 

Their comparative neglected state 238 

Attachment of the Indians to our interest 241 

The British nation principally indebted to the North- 
West-Company for the friendly alliance of the 

Indians • 243 

Great importance of the alliance of the Indians 244 

The impolicy of which the British government has been 
guilty in allowing the Americans to take possession 
of Louisiana 248 



CONTENTS. 



Tallyrand's observations upon Louisiana 249 

Important circumstances which ought to be attended to 
concerning the means which the Americans possess 

for constructing A navy .«..••• 274 

The uniform hostile disposition of America and the un- 
paralled increase of her resources require of us 
the most prompt and decisive measures towards 
ter ^**..j.^^V>?^ 

APPENDIX. 

No. ^XiiiX" 

1. Canadian exports for the last ten years 300 

2. Value of the Canadian exports in the years 1806 

and 1810, shewing their rapid increase 304 

— Value of the exports made from our North Ame- 
rican provinces for five years, ending in 1810 • • • • 310 

— Value of the imports of British manufactures 
into those provinces 311 

— Value of the imports into Great Britain from our 

American provinces 313 

3. British duties and countervailing duties 316 

4. American duties and countervailing duties 318 

5. The high price of British ships contrasted with the 

price of foreign ships 320 

6. The quantity of lumber, flour, provisions, &c. for 

the supplying of our West-Indian settlements* • • . 321 

7. Amount of the tonnage of ships annually built, and 
also of the quantity of oak timber annually used 

in Great Britain 323 

8. Amount of the tonnage of British ships employed 
in our trade with our North-American colonies, 
with the amount of their earnings in that trade • • ' 324 




yi CONTENTS^ 

No. 

. 9. The present importance of our colonies in America, 

compared with the value which those we have lost 

were to Great Britain, at the commencement of the 

late American war 325 

10. A comparative statement of the imports made into 

Great Britain from the United States and her own 
American colonies . « 326^ 

11. Comparative statement of our exports to the United 

States and her own American colonies respectively 32& 

12. Value of British imports, and the proportion of 
which is made up of freight, — how much of such 
freight ig the earnings of British ships, and what 
proportion of those earnings arises from the trade 

of our American colonies • 330 

13. Value of British exports 331 

14. The amount of the tonnage of the American ship- 
ping exceeds that of all the British shipping em- 
ployed in trade » ...... 332 

15. Amount of the tonnage of British merchant shipping 333 

16. Shipping annually entered inwards in the trade of 
Great Britam, shewing tlie proportionate amount 
of British tonnage, the amount of foreign tonnage, 
and the proportion entered inwards in the trade 
with our American colonies » • c 334 

17. Shipping annually cleared outwards in the trade of 

Great Britain, shev/ing the proportionate amount 
of British tonnage, foreign tonnage, and the pro- 
portion cleared outwards in the trade with our North- 
American colonies • • • • 335 

18. The quantity of fish annually exported from the 

British North-American colonies, and the quantity 
annually imported into our West-Indian settlements 338 



PREFACE, 



THE author's principal motives for laying 
the following pages before the public is, to 
shew the importance of the Caiiadas, in order 
to draw attention to their present perilous 
situation, with a view to adequate measures 
being taken for their defence ; and to point out 
the errors by which the interests both of the 
British ship-owners and North -American colo- 
nists have been sacrificed to the Americans, 
that the like mistakes may be guarded against, 
in any negotiations with the American govern- 
ment. 

From several years residence in these colo- 
nies, and his experience in their commercial 



Vlll PREFACE. 



concerns, and from the information he has 
collected from various channels, but particular- 
ly the materials he had collected for a Statis- 
tical Account of Canada, which he has nearly 
ready for publication, he flatters himself he 
has been enabled to communicate some very 
useful information respecting their improveable 
resources. 

For much information which the author 
has received, he has particularly to ac- 
knowledge his obligations to Nathaniel At- 
cheson, Esq. Secretary to the Committee of 
ship-owners for the Port of London, by whom 
he has been favoured with some very important 
documents respecting the trade of our North- 
American possessions. 

However sensible he is that what he now 
submits to the public falls short of what the 
subjects treated of are deserving, the author 
flatters himself that the facts he has stated, from 
a variety of authentic documents, together with 
his own observations, will shew the importance 
of those colonies beyond any thing that has 
liitherto appeared before the public. 



<§-- 



TO THE 

INHABITANTS 



BRITISH NORTH AMERICA, 



BRITISH SHIP-OWNERS, 



ALTHOUGH the author has drawn up the 
following facts and observations with a viezvy at 
this critical moment, to advocate the cause of 
British North America and British ship-owners, 
whose interests and prosperity are inseparable, 
he is nevertheless sensible of his inadequacy to 
perform the undertaking in a manner suitable 
either to the importance of the subject or the 
deserving of his transatlantic fellow subjects. 

From several years residence in the Canadas he 
had an opportunity of duly appreciating the vast 
and improveable resources of those colonies ; im- 
pressed with xvhich, and a warm regard and 



ADDRESS. 



attachment to the interests of their loyal inhabi- 
tants, he has been induced, hoxvever insufficient 
his abilities, to endeavour to draw attention to 
these important provinces ; and, in the course 
of this work, the capabilities and interests of 
all the British North- American colonies ^ as con- 
nected with the interests of the British ship- 
owners, are particularly brought into view. 
The sacrifices heretofore made to the Ameri- 
cans, and the prospect of immediate negotia- 
tion between the British and American go- 
'vernmentSy appear to him to render the present 
a period peculiarly fitted for discussing the inte- 
rests of both ; and, he flatters himself that this 
statement may not be altogether unproductive of 
advantage to their cause. To further this 
object, he ventures to suggest, that the British 
ship-owners and North- American colonists should 
come forward and lay before the British par liar 
ment a full developement of the resources of 
those settlements, that their important interests 
may be duly appreciated and protected in any fu- 
ture negotiations or commercial arrangements 
with the United States, 



TO THE 
RIGHT HONOURABLE 

GEORGE ROSE, 

Treasurer of the Navy, 
Sfc, Sfc. Sfc, 



Sir, 

PARTICIPATING in the general esteem 
in which your unremitting attention to the in- 
terests of the commerce of this country, par- 
ticularly of the British shipping, is held by all 
commercial men, I have presumed to offer the 
following pages to your notice, trusting that 
the importance of the topics, which constitute 
the subjects of inquiry, and the observations 
they contain, will be accepted as a satisfactory 
apology. It is almost superfluous to add, that 
the value, the danger, and the neglected state 
of our North-American colonies, at the pre- 
sent juncture, are matters of the deepest interest 



Xll INTRODUCTION, 



to the British nation, and call most urgently 
for the protection which your estimation and 
ability enable you to afford. 

From the facts stated, it is obvious, that, 
of all our colonies, those in North America 
are by far the most valuable to this country ; 
and, it is equally notorious, that, in the most 
imminent danger, they have been left com- 
paratively unprotected. Neither the matchless 
value of their territorial properties, — the un- 
paralleled loyalty and patriotism of their in- 
habitants, — nor the vast and unexampled im- 
provement they have lately made in British 
commerce, has been adequately appreciated ; 
but, on the contrary, and v^hilst the inhabi- 
tants of Europe, almost with one voice, extol 
our liberality, applaud our courage and mag- 
nanimity, and hail us as their protectors and 
delivers, these, the most valuable, the most 
improveable of all our colonies have been left, 
in a considerable degree, to their own efforts, 
against a most inveterate enemy. 

That our North-American possessions are, 
in point of true national advantage, in the 



INTRODUCTION. XUi 



most eminent degree entitled to our consider- 
ation, will, I trust, be shewn, by the following 
pages, in the most striking view. For, as 
to all the properties which render colonies 
valuable to a mother-country, they, of all our 
colonial estabhshments, rank the highest: in 
point of present value they are of the first 
magnitude; and, as to growing importance, 
both as respects our commercial prosperity 
and maritime power, they stand unparalleled. 

The two grand motives for the acquisition 
and protection of colonies are; first, the 
increase of our merchant-shipping, for the sup- 
ply of our navy with men; and, secondly, 
the vending of our manufactures. 

With respect to the support of our shipping, 
the amount of the tonnage of British ships 
annually cleared out to foreign parts, the whale- 
fisheries excepted, upon an average of the 
last ten years, was 801,408 tons, upwards of 
one-third of which was in the trade with our 
American colonies,* whilst the shipping em- 

* See No. 17, in the Appendix. 



XIV INTRODUCTION. 



ployed in the trade with China and the whole 
of our East-Indian possessions form only about 
a twentieth part. 

The amount of the earnings of British ships 
in the whole of our imports from foreign ports, 
upon an average, for the same period, was only 
about c£7,212,672 ;* yet, such has been the 
late rapid increase of the trade of our Ameri- 
can provinces, that, previous to the commence- 
ment of actual hostilities with the United 
Stated, two millions and a half arose from our 
intercourse with these valuable settlements.^ 

As a market for British and colonial pro- 
duce and manufactures they have lately afford- 
ed a demand for upwards of two millions and 
an half for their own consumption, besides 
abont £3,000,000 for the supply of the United 
States, in defiance of her prohibitory laws. 
Thus, at a period when our merchants and 
manufacturers were suffering the greatest dis- 
tress, these colonies furnished a demand for 
upwards of five millions sterling of British 



* See No. 12, in the Appendix. t See No. 8, ibid. 



INTRODUCTION. XV 



manufactures and colonial produce. From the 
improvement of their own trade, and, by 
the access they opened for our commerce 
through the strongest bulwark of American 
prohibition, they have, in the short space 
of four years, (1806 to 1810,) added up- 
wards of four millions to the annual demand 
for our manufactures, &c. whereas, the whole 
demand for China and our East-Indian posses- 
sions, through the East-India Company has not 
amounted to more than about ^1,200,000, with- 
out any probability of increase. 

Indeed, the late increase of the commercial 
importance of these colonies has been without 
parallel. At the conclusion of the American 
war, their demand for British manufactures 
and colonial produce was only ^379,411, 
and 10,317 tons of British shipping were all 
that annually cleared out from their ports with 
exported produce; but, in 1806, notwithstand- 
ing their rights and privileges as British colonies 
were almost completely sacrificed to America, 
this demand was increased from ^879,411 
to ^1,381,718, and the shipping from 10,317 



Xvi INTRODUCTION. 



to 124,247 tons. Further, when Buonaparte 
and Mr. Jefferson destroyed the operation 
of our own impolitic and destructive laws 
and regulations, by which we had, in relation 
to these colonies, sacrificed our commercial 
and shipping' interest, they, in four years, 
increased their imports of British manufac- 
tures and colonial produce from cf 1,381,718 
to upwards of £ 2,500,000, and advanced the 
employment afforded British ships from 124,247 
to 309,394 tons. 

In this short period of four years inter- 
val in the operation of the commercial regu- 
lations, which had so cramped the natural 
gTOwth of the prosperity of these provinces, 
the exports of timber increased from 95,975 
to 311,114 loads, being an increavSe of 215,135, 
evincing, in fact, a capability of increase to 
almost any extent. This increase is nearly 
double the amount of the demand of our 
West-Indian settlements for lumber ; and, con- 
sidering the many parliamentary inquiries 
which have taken place upon the capabilities 
of our North-American colonies in this re- 



INTRODUCTION. XVU 



spect, it is a subject of regret that the legisla- 
ture should have been so far misled or mis- 
taken upon a subject of such great national im- 
portance. For, notwithstanding all the inquiries 
which took place, the Americans were still 
allowed to supply almost the entire demand of 
our West-Indian settlements for this article. 

As to the consideration of the supplies our 
American colonies are capable of affording, the 
facts I have stated make it evident, that they 
have proved their adequacy to supply both 
the mother-country and her other colonies. 
This is a fact of the greatest national im- 
portance, in as much as shipping is indispen- 
sable to our safety and independence as a 
nation. To secure the carriage of the timber 
we import, from the immense tonnage em- 
ployed therein, is unquestionably an object of 
the first importance to the shipping interest. 

The magnitude of the augmentation, which 
might be made to the employment of British 
ships, may be estimated by comparing the 
amount of foreign tonnage annually employed 

b 



XVIU INTRODUCTION. 

in importing lumber into the mother-country 
and her colonies, with the amount of the 
tonnage of British shipping employed, in what 
is called the carrying-trade, which I designate 
the importing of goods for re-exportation, and 
carrying goods from one foreign port to another. 
Upon making this comparison, it will be found 
that the tonnage employed in the carrying- 
trade consists of comparatively the smallest 
amount ; and, if we except that part derived 
from our own colonies, the tonnage employed 
in the carrying-trade would be found to be 
hardly deserving consideration. 

But, however desirable an object it may be 
to secure the carriage of this important article, 
it is what we cannot effectually accomplish, 
except the timber is furnished by our own colo- 
nies. For that which we import from foreign 
countries must, inevitably, be carried almost 
entirely by the ships of the countries exporting 
it, because of the enormous advantage that 
foreigners have over us in the cost of their 
ships and in the expense of navigating them, 
which may be very correctly estimated, by the 



iNtRODtCTION. Xix 

rule laid down for that purpose in No. 5, in 
the Appendix, and, in general, will be found 
to amount to from 30^. to 50^. per ton upon 
a six months' voyage. This disadvantage 
could only be obviated by an adequate coun- 
tervailing duty. But, to raise our counter- 
vailing duty at once, from seven-pence half- 
penny per ton to 30j. or 50^. per ton, might 
be attended with some difficulty. For, al- 
though no delicacy might be necessary with 
regard to America, upon this score, she ha- 
ving, instead of 50^. charged at the rate of at 
least ^3 against us, yet, with respect to those 
governments that have not hitherto charged 
high countervailing duties against us, it might 
be attended with some inconvenience. 

This important purpose is, therefore, only 
to be effected by obtaining the timber from our 
own colonies : and the resources of our Ame- 
rican colonies being commensurate to this 
demand, we have it in our power, in one 
single department of the direct trade with our 
colonies, to add to the employment of Bri- 
tish shipping an amount of tonnage exceed- 

b2 



XX INTRODUCTION. 

ing that of the greatest extent of our pre- 
sent carrying-trade, notwithstanding its vast 
variety and extended scale. 

In respect to foreign timber, therefore, under 
existing circumstances, the interests of this 
country, — the custom of other nations, — and the 
example of our ancestors, require that it should 
either be prohibited or charged vi^ith adequate 
protecting duties in favour of our own colonies. 
La urging this measure, it maybe observed, 
that foreign governments, although they might 
have a right to remonstrate concerning the par- 
tial operation of such laws as we might enact 
for prohibiting or rendering foreign produce 
liable to high protecting duties in favour of our 
own colonies, yet, in point of principle, they 
have no right to bring them at all into discus- 
sion. To be " put upon a footing with the most 
favoured nations" is all they can reasonably 
insist upon. 

The cr it erm2 for estimating this protect- 
ing duty is, the diiFerence between the freight 
and other expenses incurred in importing 
timber from our own colonies and the freight 



INTRODUCTION. XXi 



and expense incurred in importing it from fo- 
reign countries, to which an addition should 
be made to secure a preponderance in favour 
of our own colonies. As we cannot, consis- 
tently with equity and justice, charge the tim- 
ber of different countries at different rates of 
duties, but must charge the same amount upon 
all foreign timber indiscriminately, it is, there- 
fore, necessary to compare the amount of ex- 
pense on all the foreign timber imported into 
this country, and take the expense upon that 
imported at the cheapest rate, as a maximum 
for ascertaining the amount of the protecting 
duty. 

Suppose, for instance, that the freight and 
other expense upon timber imported from the 
following couRtries, to be^ — from the British 
colonies in North America, £6; from the United 
States, £6; from Russia, £2: 15; and from 
Prussia, j£^: 10 ; the difference between the ex- 
pense of importing timber from Prussia and from 
our colonies in America, the one being jE2 : 1 
and the other £6, is j£3 : 10 ; and, suppose 5s, 
per load added, to give a preponderance in fa- 



XXll INTRODUCTION, 

vour of our own colonies, ^3 : 15 per load is 
therefore the protecting duty which ought to be 
charged upon all foreign timber indiscrimi^ 
nately. 

These remarks concerning timber may, per- 
haps, be considered rather prolix. Upon con- 
sidering, however, that, with respect to the ex- 
pense of importation, the gross amount of the 
present duty charged upon foreign timber is 
not even sufficient to put our own American 
colonies upon an equality with the countries 
upon the Baltic, &c. ; — that part of this duty is 
only a war-tax, to cease in six months after a 
peace; — and, that it is even probable that 
foreign courts may be at this very moment 
using their influence to have this duty reduced, 
whilst our colonists and ship-owners may re- 
main in ignorance of what is going on, till they 
hear their fate in these interests for years to come 
officially announced; — upon considering and 
reflecting upon these circumstances, it is con^ 
ceived not irrelevant, but, on the contrary, re- 
quisite that we should enter more minutely 
into detail upon a subject, which, of all others, 



INTRODUCTION. XXIU 



it must be admitted, is of the very first magni- 
tude to the British shipping-interest. 

The annual demand of our West-Indian set- 
tlements for lumber is about - 147,275 tons 
For agricultural produce about 72,499 
For fish about 32,603 



This 252,377 tons=^ 
is sufficient to have loaded about 2 10,3 15 register 
tons.f Upon an average of three years, pre- 
vious to the interruption of our commercial in- 
tercourse with the United States, the Ameri- 
cans furnished of this demand the enormous 
proportion of 211,043 tons, with which they 
must have cleared out at least 175,870 register 
tons of shipping. By attending to the facts which 
I shall state, it will be found that our own colo- 
nies were capable of furnishing these articles, 
in sufficient abundance, for the supply of our 



* See No. 6, in the Appendix. 

t Many of the vessels used in supplying the West Indies 
jvith American produce are small sharp fast-sailing vessels, 
which will scarcely carry tons measurement equal to their 
register tons. 



XXIV I NTRODUCTION 



West-Indian settlements ; and, consequently, 
this privilege granted to the Americans was alto- 
gether unnecessary. The adequacy of our Ame- 
rican provinces to furnish agricviltural produce 
in sufficient abundance for the supply t)f our 
West-Indian settlements, may, compared with 
their resources in other produce, perhaps, be 
considered the most questionable. The causes, 
however, which I have assigned, for hitherto 
preventing the improvement of their resources 
in this respect, and the means which would 
prove effectual in improving these capabilities, 
so as to produce supplies adequate to all our 
demands, will, I trust, be found quite satisfac- 
tory upon these important points. Indeed, 
the interests of the nation renders it the impe- 
rious duty of his Majesty's ministers, on ente- 
ring into any negotiations or commercial ar- 
rangements with the American government, 
adequately to inform themselves respecting 
the great and improvable resources of our 
North-American provinces, and detect the 
mistaken policy of our late commercial regu- 
lations, by which they were sacrificed to 



INTRODUCTION. XX Y 



the United States, so as to avoid similar er- 
rors. 

Amongst the sacrifices made to the Ameri- 
cans, the principal are to be found in the open- 
ing of the ports of our colonies to their ships, — 
in the advantages allowed them in the counter- 
vailing duties charged by them and us respec- 
tively, — and in the admission of their produce 
into this country, at lower duties than those 
charged upon the produce of other foreign na- 
tions. In these, the sacrifice of British ship- 
ping, and the injury done to British merchants 
and British manufacturers, and our North- Ame- 
rican colonists, are immense. 

Nothing, surely, could have been more im- 
politic than to have allowed them to have sup- 
plied our colonies with masts, spars, square 
timber, deals, or staves, or any other descrip- 
tion of lumber, considering our own American 
colonies are evidently capable of supplying 
even double the demand, both of the mother- 
country and her colonies ; yet they were allow- 
ed and even encouraged to supply our colonies 
in every part of the world with these bulky 
articles. 



XXVI INTRODUCTION. 

Could the amount of the American tonnage 
employed in their trade to our colonies in Eu- 
rope, in Africa, and in the East Indies, be cor- 
rectly ascertained, and adding the amount of the 
tonnage of the lumber they imported into this 
country to the 175,870 tons cleared out 
annually in their trade with our West-Indian 
colonies, the amount would be found to be 
enormous. There is no doubt but that the 
amount of tonnage, which they employed in 
these direct spoliations upon British commerce, 
bore a very large proportion to the whole 
amount of tonnage we employed in foreign 
trade. 

The injuries we sustained, by the trade which 
the Americans were allowed to carry on 
with our colonies, was, however, not merely 
confined to our shipping interest. Their inter- 
course with our West-Indian possessions has 
always been attended with smuggling: they 
imported East-Indian and Chinese produce 
and manufactures largely into these settle- 
ments ; and smuggled out sugars in return. 

In their trade with our East-Indian posses- 
sions, too, they could import East-Indian and 



INTRODUCTION. XXVll 



Chinese produce and manufactures in such 
quantities, and at, comparatively, such low 
prices as to enable them almost entirely to 
supply our West-Indian and North-American 
colonies. It follows, from their direct trade 
w^ih the East Indies, that they can import India 
goods into the United States at a much lower 
rate than that at which the like articles could be 
imported from London through our East-India 
Company ; consequently, vast importations were 
made for their own consumption, which super- 
seded a proportionate consumption of British 
manufactures. 

The duty charged, by the East-India Com- 
pany, upon the American trade with our 
East-Indian possessions has been, by some, 
held forth as an equivalent for this privi- 
lege. This is an argument too absurd to 
merit notice. But, as it has been advanced 
in support of the measure, even by some 
of our legislators, it may, therefore, be ob- 
served, concerning its absurdity, that it is no 
niore reasonable than it would be to exclude 
British ships from the port of London and 



XXVm INTRODUCTION. 



endeavour to render the measure palatable by 
urging the imposition of a duty. The trade 
must pay the duty, and whenever it or any 
other trade ceases to afford a profit, after pay- 
ing duties and other expenses to which it is 
liable, it will, indeed it must, be discontinued. 
The British government, therefore, instead of ha- 
ving opened the ports of our Asiatic settlements 
to the Americans, ought rather to have opened 
them to a general trade with the British islands 
and strictly to have observed the law which 
prohibited foreigners from any participation in 
the trade of our colonies. For it is to these 
wise laws, which were held sacred by our 
ancestors, that we are indebted for ships, 
colonies, and commerce. 

The advantages allowed the Americans in 
the countervailing duties charged by them and 
us, respectively, will be found to have been 
enormous. These respective duties were, no 
doubt, about equal in point of per centage upon 
the other duties charged : the Americans and 
us charged 10 per cent, respectively; but they 



INTRODUCTION. XXIX 

differed widely, however, with respect to real a- 
mount, — no less indeed Ihdia three thousand three 
hundred per cent, against the British ship-own- 
ers,^ — our countervailing duty being about 22^?. 
per ton, and that of the Americans ^3 per ton. 
The admission of United-States produce at a 
lower rate of duties than was charged upon the 
produce of other foreign nations was equally 
unjust towards other foreign nations and our 
own colonists, as it was injurious to our ship- 
ping interest. The United States gave us no 
advantage over other foreigners ; but, on the 
contrary, singled us out for many insults and 
disadvantages. Then, surely it was ungracious to 
other foreign nations to grant her this peculiar 
privilege. Our North- American colonists, being 
excluded any participation in almost any other 
trade than that of the mother-country, have 
an undoubted right to look for a reciprocal ad- 
vantage in the exclusive privilege of supplying 
her with all articles, of which they could fur- 
nish her with sufficient supplies, (such as lum- 
ber, fish, &c.) and for adequate encourage- 
ment in protecting duties upon those articles 



XXX INTRODUCTION 



of foreign produce, of which she could only 
furnish partial supplies. 

Now is the time to remedy all those evils 
which existed in our commercial regulations 
with America. And, indeed, it is to be 
hoped, that his Majesty's ministers will not 
put the United States only " upon a footing 
with the most favoured nations f but that, in 
their commercial arrangements with all foreign 
nations, they will duly appreciate and protect 
the vast resources of these colonies. 

No news ever reached Canada, that gave 
more sincere joy, than the remark, which 
you made in the House of Commons, that 
the Americans should be " put upon a foot- 
ing with the most favoured nations." They 
understood your meaning to be, that the 
United-States produce was to be rendered lia- 
ble to the same rate of duties as that of other 
foreign nations ; and 1 sincerely hope, for the 
sake of British commerce, the protection of 
the British shipping-interest, and the prospe- 
rity of our colonies, that their hopes will not 
be disappointed. 



INTRODUCTION. XXXI 



The public are already under many obliga- 
tions to you, for your zealous and vigilant 
attentions to the general concerns of the com- 
mercial world, by which the ship-owners have 
particularly benefitted : and I hope the follow- 
ing pages will prove, that in no department of 
British commerce could you more essentially 
serve the commercial and shipping interests 
of the country than by your consideration of 
those affairs which relate to or affect the inter- 
ests of our North-American colonies. 

I have the honour to be, 

with sentiments of the 

greatest respect and esteem, 

SIK, 

Your most obedient and 
very humble servant, 

DAVID ANDERSON. 

London, 

March 10, 1814. 



VALUE AND IMPORTANCE 



BRITISH COLONIES 



NORTH AMERICA. 



CHAP. I. 

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE BRITISH 
NORTH-AMERICAN PROVINCES, SHIPPING 
AND COMMERCIAL INTERESTS, ETC. 

The critical situation in which our colonies 
in North America have been placed by the pre- 
sent war with the United States; the neglected 
state of our shipping interest; the precari- 
ous dependence, to which our West-Indian 
colonists have, for several years past, been 
often reduced, for articles indispensably ne* 
cessary to their very existence ; are subjects, 



IMPORTANCE OF THE 



which the circumstances that mark the pre- 
sent period render peculiarly interesting. 

Relating to these important points, the com- 
mercial connection which existed, and the in- 
tercourse which has been maintained, between 
the United States and our American continental 
colonies, our West-Indian colonies, and this 
country, previous to the late hostile steps 
resorted to by the Americans, are topics, the 
investigation and discussion of which are not 
only of the greatest importance to the British 
nation collectively, but to our ship-owners in 
particular, and therefore constitute matter of 
the most serious consideration for the legislator. 
The marking features which constitute the 
essential character of our North- American 
colonies necessarily claim, in the outset, our 
most particular attention. Their vast extent of 
coast ; their fisheries ; their forests ; their rela- 
tive situation with respect to the United 
States ; their population ; the state of agricul- 
ture and quality of the soil; their exports and 
imports ; ail these constitute collectively and 
individually, subjects of most interesting con- 
sequence, as well during the continuance of a 
war with America, as with reference to any 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES, 



treaty which might be in contemplation for the 
termination of the present hostilities: more 
especially, as a well-directed line of policy 
towards these valuable possessions would 
undoubtedly call into action their numerous 
and hitherto much-neglected capabilities, and 
thereby promote the various interests involved 
in the important subjects above mentioned. 

Perhaps to the statesman, who has an eye to 
our domestic policy, most of the general and 
some of the particular points of local informa- 
tion respecting these provinces may be familiar ; 
but, as far as relates to the shipping-interest, 
and the various commercial connections which 
these general points of policy involve, there 
are so many minute details regarding both the 
geographical and statistical character of these 
provinces, — so many local peculiarities fami- 
liar to those only who have experienced the 
practical result of the former, and had an oppor- 
tunity of examining the properties of the latter, 
that communications upon such topics, from 
persons adequately informed, may not only be 
found useful to the merchant and ship-owner^ 
but to the statesman, either in vigorously 
prosecuting the war, or in negociating or ar- 
b2 



IMPORTANCE OF THE 



tanging a pacific or commercial treaty, the 
most accurate information upon such points is 
absolutely indispensable. 

With regard to our shipping interest, for 
example, the statesman may be aware of the 
established custom and sound policy of im- 
posing a countervailing duty in favour of our 
own ships, in order, as far as possible, to se- 
cure the carriage of the raw material which 
we import; but, without correct information, 
and a strict attention to many minute circum- 
stances, which can only be thoroughly known 
to and correctly communicated by ship-own- 
ets, or Otthers intimately acquainted with the 
shippiilg-interest, he may commit the most 
egregious mistakes. For, in the absence of 
such minute information, or from not properly 
discriminating between interested communica- 
tions and the fair statements of those who are 
unbiased by any secondary considerations, in- 
stead of securing (as he may have imagined) 
our ship-owners interest in the carriage of such 
commodities, he may have actually agreed to 
a preference given to the ships of foreign na- 
tions. — He may, in the arrangement of com- 
mercial treaties with other powers, have sacri- 






BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 5 

ficed the interest of our ship-owners, as here- 
tofore, by contenting himself, upon the one 
hand, with a countervailing duty of thirteen 
pence per ton, or the hundredth part of the 
freight, in favour of our own ships, (See No. 
3, in the Appendix) ; and, upon the other 
hand, by agreeing to a countervailing duty 
of X^ per ton, in favour of the ships of foreign 
nations, (See No. 4.) — He may be possessed 
of a large share of general information regard- 
ing our American provinces; but, in order 
that he may be enabled duly to appreciate, 
protect, and encourage, the improvement 
of the valuable properties of these colo- 
nies in any negotiations concerning them, 
it is absolutely necessary that he should 
know the existence of many minute and im- 
portant circumstances, of which it is evident 
our legislators have been hitherto ignorant. 
For instance, he may view the supplying of 
our West-Indian islands with American pro- 
duce from our own colonies, as a very desirable 
object ; and may, therefore, feel inclined to en- 
courage it ; but he should also know, that even 
after the question, xvheiher or not our American 
provinces could supply our JVest-Indian islands 



6 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

mthfiour^ lumber^ S^c. had been frequently dis- 
cussed in the British parliament, that flour 
still continued to be carried from the hanhs of 
the St Laurejice to the ports of the United 
States, to be there shipped in American ves- 
sels for these "very islands'^ and that lumber still 
continued to lie rotting in the ports of our 
provinces, for w^ant of a market, whilst these 
islands continued to be supplied w^ith the 
above articles from the United States ; other- 
wise, how could he guard and secure our ship- 
ping and commercial interests in legislating or 
negotiating concerning them ? — He must know, 
as a maxim of general policy, that it is 
expedient we should protect and encourage 
our own fisheries ; but it is highly important that 
he should also know, that, whilst the Americans 
were encouraged in supplying our West-Indian 
islands with fish actually caught and cured 
upon our own coast, by authority of the British 
government, our own fisheries laboured under 
the greatest difficulties in finding a market. 

I certainly do not pretend to give all the ne- 
cessary information upon these subjects, but 
shall endeavour to point out and make a few 
remarks upon some of those of the most mate- 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 



rial importance, in order, if possible, to lead to 
their complete elucidation by others more com- 
petent Indeed our ship-owners and mer- 
chants at large are called upon at this critical 
period, to communicate the fullest information 
to Government concerning our shipping, — our 
American provinces, — and our West-Indian 
colonies, — in order to put them sufficiently 
upon their guard against these important 
interests being again sacrificed^ as they have 
been by former commercial treaties. 

Hitherto, from some strange misconcep- 
tion of the reciprocal interests of the mother- 
country and her transatlantic possessions, the 
British government has been in many respects, 
actually legislating for the advantage of 
America, both before and after the disgrace- 
ful commercial treaty, w^hich the Americans 
threatened and frightened us into^ in the year 
1794, which operated in their favour until 
lately, when, fortunately, a period was put to 
it by their insufferable encroachments and un- 
bounded ambition ; — actually legislating in fa- 
vour of those very people, who, as soon as 
they had, by her fostering care and protection, 
acquired sufficient strength, rebelled against 



IMPORTANCE OF THE 



her, and succeeding in asserting their indepen- 
dence, became, and have been hitherto, her 
bitterest enemies ; — in favour of America, with 
whom we are now at war, and who looks at 
our extensive and improving colonies along her 
frontiers with a jealous eye, straining every 
nerve to wrest from us these most important 
possessions, the tenure of which, we in a great 
measure owe to the loyalty and patriotism of 
their inhabitants, 

America is thoroughly aware of the value 
and growing importance of these colonies, 
and shapes her course accordingly ; she knows 
that when the mother-country is under a state 
of seclusion from the continent, these colonies 
are capable of supplying her with various 
articles of the most material importance, — with 
articles for which, although essential to her 
political existence, Great Britain has neverthe- 
less been dependent upon the precarious sup- 
plies of her very enemies. 

But exclusive of these advantages which the 
mother-country derives from the natural pro- 
duce of these possessions, we must look to their 
growing importance to her as a market for her 
manufactures, which, for want of demand. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 



have of late years been at times rotting 
in our warehouses, and consequently many 
of our valuable and industrious mechanics 
were rendered destitute of their usual means 
of support, and thereby exposed to that spirit 
of riot and discontent, which has so lately 
convulsed the northern counties, and spread 
confusion over districts which, previously to 
these disastrous occurrences, had been the 
scene of commercial industry and domestic 
comfort. 

I have already observed, that one of the 
main objects, which I have in view, is to 
draw attention to the critical situation of 
the British provinces, particularly the Cana- 
das, in consequence of the present war. I 
shall, therefore, by way of shewing their impor- 
tance to Great Britain, in order to stimulate 
her to adequate measures for their defence, 
take notice of the topographical characteristics 
of these colonies and several features of do- 
mestic policy, with respect to their relations 
with the mother-country, with the British set- 
tlements in the West-Indies, and with the 
United States, which appear of most essential 
consequence, to be minutely investigated and 



10 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

maturely considered, with reference to any 
negotiations, for the termination of hostilities. 

These observations, however, will be carried 
little further than merely to impress distinctly 
and emphatically the importance of the sub- 
ject. 

Information of this kind will, no doubt; 
have some weight in the estimation of our legis- 
lators, whenever negotiations for peace with 
America shall be in progress : such information 
is, indeed, absolutely necessary, in order to 
ascertain the genuine interests, both of the mo- 
ther-country and of her colonies ; as, without 
a correct knowledge of such particulars, it 
would be impossible to form any adequate idea 
of the extent to which they might be rendered 
available to Great Britain, nor what political 
regulations would be best calculated to rouse 
into action and give full play to these most 
important advantages, . which these colonies 
possess. 

That the operation of political regulations 
or legislative enactments have hitherto been so 
much misconceived and misdirected, as to 
impair many of those valuable capabilities 
inherent in these provinces, and the principle 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 11 

by which these most impolitic measures have 
been directed has been much better calcu- 
lated to promote the interests of the Ameri- 
cans, who have, ever since their independence, 
been our secret enemy, and are now in open 
hostility with us, than of these colonies, or 
Great Britain, is a position, which it is my 
present object to substantiate. 

In illustrating these intended observations, 
although I shall indeed generally take notice 
of all the four British provinces, yet, as the 
Canadas form at present the principal object 
of attack by the Americans, and constitute, in 
many respects, the most important of our 
American possessions, 1 shall be more par- 
ticular with respect to these provinces. 



The most important advantages which dis- 
tinguish the British colonies in America are the 
vast and inexhaustible forests of valuable tim- 
ber which abound throughout the whole ; the 
excellent quality of the land which predomi- 
nates, particularly in the Canadas; and the 



12 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

extentive variety of productive fisheries v<?hich 
surround their coasts. 

Upon reaching Quebec, in ascending the 
St. Laurence, the country begins to improve 
in point of fertility, and upon reaching St. 
Anns, which is sixty miles above Quebec, 
a tract of the finest and most fertile laud in 
America, commences upon both sides of 
that river, and continues upwards to the ex- 
tremity of Lake Superior, being a length, 
from St. Anns, of ^owX fifteen hundred miles. 

Unquestionably this vast extent of country, 
advancing in such rapid progress of improve- 
ment, — the superior quality of the soil, and 
its other important advantages, have excited 
the envy and jealousy of the government 
of the United States, and had the most 
powerful influence for commencing the pre- 
sent war. My own opinion is, that their 
cupidity for these colonies has been a much 
stronger stimulus, than the ostensible pretext, 
relative to the impressment of their seameUo 
The American government is fully aware that 
the produce of all that part of their territory 
which lies upon the St. Laurence and the 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 13 

Lakes, from I^ke Champlain upwards, must 
be exported through the river St, Laurence ; 
and that, by the same channel, the inhabitants 
of that extensive territory must consequently 
be suppHed v^ith foreign produce and manu- 
factures. 

The Americans, no doubt, conceived this the 
most favourable opportunity, which would 
ever occur, for wresting the Canadas from 
Great Britain : for, hitherto, the people who 
inhabit the northern parts of the United 
States, are, as will be made appear here- 
after, still in complete ignorance of the ex- 
tent to which they can be benefited by having 
the English along their frontiers ; and from 
hence, they more easily become dupes of their 
own government, res^pecting misrepresentations 
of their interest in this respect. 

When the Americans see an extent of up- 
wards of 1200 miles of their frontier-settle- 
ments, now closing in vmion with those of the 
English colonies, and are thoroughly apprised 
that this is a door opening to British com- 
merce, which will not only, prove profitable 
both to the English and their colonists ; but 
also know, that it will prove advantageous to 



14 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



all such of their own citizens as inhabit that 
extensive country along the Canadian frontiers, 
and therefore know that at any after period 
it might be very difficult, if not impossible, to 
induce that portion of their population to take 
a part in a war so contrary to their interest ; 
they have for these reasons, therefore, eagerly 
embraced the first opportunity that offered 
for commencing hostilities. 



Although the geographical position of 
our American provinces is sufficiently pointed 
out in the maps, yet, as some important in- 
ferences are intended to be drawn from their 
boundaries, and also from their extent of 
coast, compared with that of the United States, 
I have thought it expedient to enter into the 
following statement : — 

The extreme length of Nova Scotia, which 
extends from the gut of Canso to Cape Sable, 
is about two hundred miles, and its breadth 
about ninety. 

The province of New Brunswick extends 
from the bay of Fundy to Chelleaure Bay, 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 15 

being its extreme length, which is also about 
two hunded miles ; and its extreme breadth, 
from the gulph of St. Laurence to the line 
which divides the province from the state 
of Main, is about one hundred and twenty 
miles. 

Of these two provinces New Brunswick 
only borders upon the United States; the 
length of this communication is about two 
hundred and twenty miles. 

The province of Lower Canada extends from 
the mouth of the St. Laurence, upwards to 
St. Regis, about sixty miles above Montreal; 
being a length of about six hundred miles, 
upon that noble river, from whence it derives 
many of the important local advantages which 
it so eminently enjoys. 

On the south it is bounded by the British 
province of New Brunswick, and the states of 
Vermont, and New York. From Cape Ro- 
ziers upwards, for more than one hundred 
miles, the country consists of barren rocky 
mountains, and is therefore unsettled ; but be- 
yond that distance it is settled to the upper 
extremity. The breadth of this part of the 
province lying upon the south side of the St. 



16 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



Laurence is very irregular ; its greatest breadth 
may be about one hundred miles, and the 
average perhaps about sixty. 

That part of the province which lies upon 
the north side of the St. Laurence has Upper 
Canada for its upper boundary ; the division 
line betw^een the two provinces commencing 
from the St. Laurence at a point about twenty 
miles above the mouth of the river Ottawa. 

Its eastern boundary is the Labradore coast ; 
and its northern boundary-line Hudson's Bay. 
The extent of this part of the province, upon the 
north of the banks of the St. Laurence, (being, 
from the border of Upper Canada down- 
wards to the islands of Mingan, in the mouth 
of that river,) is about seven hundred miles. 
Of this extent, however, there are not more 
than three hundred and tifty miles settled; 
the settlements only extending downwards to 
Rock Bay, which is one hundred miles below 
Quebec. 

The province of Upper Canada is situated up- 
on the north side of the river St. Laurence, Lake 
Ontario, Lake Errie, Lake Huron, Lake Supe- 
rior, Lake of the Woods, &c. and from thence 
upon a line undefined to the Pacific Ocean, 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 17 

From Lower Canada, along this inland navi- 
gation, which is so singularly convenient, 
beautiful, and extensive, to the extremity of 
Lake Superior, is a length of about thirteen 
hundred and jifty miles of an almost uninter- 
rupted continuation of a fine fertile soil, and 
in every respect a most delightful country : a 
very considerable proportion of this extent, 
however, is still unsettled. The settlements, at 
present, only extend to Detroit, which is situate 
between Lake Errie and Lake Huron, being 
a distance of about five hundred and fifty 
miles from the border of Lower Canada ; but 
the fine climate, the superiority of the soil, 
and the conveniences and advantages of local 
situation, are such that the settlements are ex- 
tending upwards very rapidly. 

It appears, therefore, that from Detroit, which 
is the uppermost of the settlements, downwards 
to their lowest extremity, at Rock Bay, which 
is one hundred miles below Quebec, is an ex- 
tent of about nine hundred miles settled upon 
the north banks of the St. Laurence and its 
lakes : this, with the above four hundred and 
fifty miles of the lower province, inhabited 
upon the south side, makes the whole extent 

G 



18 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

of the settlements of the two Canadas, lying 
upon the banks of the St. Laurence and the 
Lakes, about thirteen hundred and fifty miles. 

The possession of such an immense extent 
of country, upon this inland navigation, so ad- 
vantageously situate for commercial purposes, 
is necessarily of the first importance to Great 
Britain 



i 



It is important to take notice of the great 
length of frontier by which these provinces and 
the United States communicate with each other, 
in order to shew the commercial facilities and 
those most important and permanent advanta- 
ges, which this extended communication is cal- 
culated to afford to British commerce ; which 
will more adequately enable us to judge how^ 
far these circumstances, and the rapid im- 
provement of this part of the American fron- 
tier, have roused the jealousy of the United 
States and prompted them to the commence- 
ment of hostilities. 

Considering the great length of the line of 
frontier, by which the British provinces com- 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 19 

nniiiicate with the United States, no human 
power can prevent a commerce, highly advanta- 
geous to the British, being carried on between 
the two countries : — a commerce, which to us, 
considering the great extent and growing 
prosperity of the country constituting these 
frontiers, must be a permanent source of 
wealth ; but particularly during times and cir- 
cumstances such as we have lately experi- 
enced, during the period our most inveterate 
enemy has succeeded in shutting us out from 
the continent of Europe. 

This intercourse has been hitherto limited, 
from the immense tract of imsettled land which 
divides the two countries, having been con- 
fined to a few roads of communication, and 
these few even very inconvenient: the quan- 
tity of British manufactures hitherto introduced 
into the United States has, therefore, notwith- 
standing this extended line of frontier, been 
comparatively small ; the same circumstances 
have also had the same effect on the transpor- 
tation of produce by the Americans to the St. 
Laurence. 

The demand for British manufactures in 
these colonies has been hitherto indeed little 

c 2 



20 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

more than for the supply of the inhabitants ; 
but, as the settlements of the British colonies 
and the United States have now begun to meet 
throughout an extent of upwards of 1,200 
miles of their frontier — a length greater than 
the whole extent of the coast of the United 
States, from New Brunswick to Florida, a door 
is thereby now opening for the introduction of 
British manufactures, to the United States — a 
door which, whilst the British keep it open, by 
encouraging the commerce which it gives ac- 
cess to, America can neither, by prohibitory 
law^s, prevent the introduction of British goods, 
nor, by embargo, hinder the produce of that 
vast extent of country from being transported 
to the shipping-ports of the St. Laurence, — t\vo 
objects of the first importance to the mother 
country. 

Such parts of the frontiers of the two coun- 
tries as are settled are rapidly encreasing in 
population, which is also daily acquiring an ac- 
celerated accumulation by continual emigrations 
from the eastern states, not merely to that part 
of the United States, bordering upon Canada, 
but also into these provinces. 

The immense extent of American territory, 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 21 



just emerging from a dreary wilderness into a 
fine fertile country, upon the very frontier of 
the British colonies, — upon the navigable wa- 
ters of the St. Laurence, which must inevitably 
carry its produce to where it can only be ship- 
ped by British merchants ; and, from whence it 
can only be carried by British ships, has, as I 
have before hinted, excited in the American 
government a degree of jealousy of which few 
people are aware. For that government, as 
well as the governments of the continent of 
Europe are not ignorant of the profit and 
sound policy of securing, as far as possible, 
the carriage of all their own produce, and 
also of grasping all within their reach of the 
carriage of the goods of other nations. 

They know that as the overflowing of a 
fountain, after answering the specific purpose 
for which it was opened, finds out the channel 
most congenial to its current, so the surplus 
produce of this new and fertile country, al- 
though hitherto almost absorbed by the great 
demand, arising from the vast influx of settlers, 
must likewise, in large quantities, push its 
way through the most convenient channel to 
another market : they also know that this chan- 



22 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

nel must be the St. Laurence; and, conse- 
quently, that the markets must necessarily be 
those, in which neither their merchants, nor 
their ships can be employed in the exporta- 
tion of produce ; and are, therefore, sufficient- 
ly apprised that the British must exclusively 
enjoy all the advantages resulting from this fine 
country, hitherto unknown, but now rising 
into importance. 

Thoroughly impressed with these advanta- 
ges, and the increasing importance of these co- 
lonies, to Great Britain, the United States 
will, during the present war, make propor- 
tionate exertions to obtain possession of them ; 
or, at the period of hostilities, endeavour, by 
some commercial treaty, to get them again sa- 
crificed to their interest : but the mother-coun- 
try, from motives of the soundest policy and 
regard to self-interest, is bound to make com- 
mensurate exertions to defend these valuable 
colonies in time of war, and protect them in 
their legitimate privileges in time of peace. 

The following may be considered a few 
of the advantages which Great Britain derives 
from this great length of inland navigation 
and extended communication between the 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 23 



United Stales and the British provinces, viz:— 
The river St. Laurence and the Lakes must 
be the principal channel for the commerce of 
the countries upon both sides, as well the 
American side as the Canadian, both in tha 
export and import trade : as long, therefore, 
as the British hold their present possessions 
they must exclusively enjoy that trade. — The 
inhabitants of the British colonies pay almost 
no taxes, whilst their neighbours, the Ame- 
ricans, upon the opposite banks of the river, 
are liable to heavy taxes and other public bur- 
thens : our colonists will, therefore, undoubt- 
edly continue firmly attached to the govern- 
ment from which they enjoy this advantage. 
British manufactures, &c. being admitted into 
Canada, duty free, whereas they are liable 
to heavy duties in the United States ; and the 
St. Laurence being the shortest and cheapest 
channel by which these countries can be sup- 
plied with foreign commodities, the Canadians 
will thereby have the supplying of the Ame- 
ricans who inhabit the country upon their 
frontiers, with British and other foreign 
manufactures secured to them. This exten- 
sive frontier will prove a door always open 



34 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

to the introduction of British manufactures, 
in spite of the most rigid enactments of the 
American government to the contrary; and, 
moreover, the higher the duties charged by 
the American government are, either to an- 
svi^er pecuniary purposes, or, to encourage 
domestic manufactures, the greater will be 
the encouragement held out to their citizens to 
evade them by smuggling : the higher the 
duties, therefore, the greater will be the ad- 
vantages enjoyed by the British over other 
foreigners by this exclusive door of access. 
And should America at any future time, as they 
have at some former periods, charge a higher 
duty upon British than upon other foreign 
merchandise, the difference, instead of exclu- 
ding our manufactures, will only operate as 
a countervaluing duty in favour of the Cana- 
dian importers and the British ships, as well 
as prove an additional inducement held out 
to their own citizens to evade the duty. For, 
certain it is, that all the revenue of the United 
States is not sufficient to keep up a custorar 
house establishment, sufficient to prevent 
smuggling by means of this immense door of 
access, provided the American duties, as I have 
observed, constitute a sufficient inducement. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 25 

The benefits which will result to the Cana- 
dians, as well as the other colonists, however, 
from the enjoyment of their rightful privileges 
in respect to the exportation of their produce, 
will give them by far the most important ad- 
vantages over the Americans ; namely, in 
securing to them the supplying of our West- 
Indian colonies with American produce, — and, 
in charging the same duties upon American 
lumber and other produce imported into the 
mother country as upon that of other foreign 
nations ; — -these fair, just, and legitimate, pri- 
vileges secured to our American colonists, — 
privileges which too vitally concern our ship- 
ping interest, — will do more towards securing 
the attachment of our American colonists than 
all other advantages united ; — nay, more than 
all other favours which the mother country 
has it in her power to bestow upon th^n. 



In modern times, when navigation is found 
to be the principal source from whence flows 
the riches and independence of nations, or at 
least the channel through which these valuable 



26 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



blessings are, in the most eminent degree, 
derived, of all the properties which charac- 
terise any country, the extent of coast and 
the navigable facilities which it affords are 
the first in importance. 

Concerning our American provinces, there- 
fore, it may be remarked as a most important 
fact, that the extent of navigable shores of 
inhabited and fertile country, accessible to 
ships from sea, is greater than that similarly 
navigable in the possession of the United 
States, from New Brunswick to Florida. 

In explanation of what is meant by the 
term shore, or coast, (so far as regards this 
comparison,) such only is intended, as will 
admit of ships of three hundred tons register 
measurement; a burthen sufficiently large to 
carry produce to foreign markets at the lowest 
rate of freights. 

The extent of shores of the settled and 
fertile territory of the continent of North Ame- 
rica, belonging to Great Britain, amounts in 
the aggregate, to 1310 miles,* 



* In estimating the extent of the navigable shore of the 
British colonies, I have reckoned from the River St. Croix, 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 27 

This is a greater length of navigable coast 
than that which was lost by the last American 



which divides the province of New Brunswick from the 
State of Main, round the coast of Nova Scotia, through 
the girt of Canso and along that part of the coast of New 
Brunswick and Lower Canada which fronts the gulph of St. 
Laurence to Cape Roziers, making a length of 600 miles. 
From Cape Roziers, upwards, to Montreal, 

upon the south side of the St. Laurence, 530 
From Montreal, downwards, upon the north 
side of the St. Laurence, to Rock-Bay, 
which is one hundred miles below 
Quebec 280 

Altogether amounting to 1410 miles i 
being two hundred and ten miles more than the whole extent 
of that part of the coast of America, lying between the 
River St. Croix and the River St. Mary, which was the whole 
extent of sea-coast possessed by the United States, previous 
to their purchase of Louisiana from the Spaniards. 

It will be observed, that this statement comprehends only 
the shores of the continent, and (except the space which 
lies between Cape Roziers and Cape Chat, being about one 
hundred miles of rocky mountains,) such parts only of the 
country as are settled and fit for agricultural purposes. 

It appears, therefore, that, after deducting the one hundred 
miles of barren mountains above Cape Chat, the extent of 
shores of the settled fertile country, which their colonies 
comprehend, is 1310 miles. 



28 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

war ; and, estimating its value by the commer- 
cial facilities which it affords, is comparatively 
much more valuable than an equal extent of 
the United-States coast, fronting the Atlantic 
Ocean. 

This comparison of the navigable coast of 
the United States, with that of the British 
possessions, in front of such parts of the 
country as are capable of agricultural im- 
provements, may be objected to on account 
of part of the one being the shores of the 
River St. Laurence, and the other open to the 
Atlantic Ocean. Such objections, however, 
will be removed, by inspecting the map of 
the country and chart of the coast ; for, by 
drawing a line upon the former, at some given 
distance, (suppose one hundred miles,) and 
in such a direction, that it shall not exceed 
the proposed distance from such parts, (whe- 
ther upon the coast of the Atlantic, or up 
bays and rivers,) as ships of the proposed di- 
mensions of three hundred tons can find 
safe harbours, it will then be found, that the 
difference is greatly in favour of the British 
possessions in point of territorial extent, bene- 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 29 

fited by such navigation ; and still more in 
favour of the British possessions in point 
of the quantity of superior soil so bene- 
fited. Such parts of the coast of the United 
States, (or indeed of any other coast,) as are 
completely open to the ocean, afford no bar* 
hours to any description of ships. It is in 
bv^ys, creeks, mouths of rivers, or under 
shelter of islands, therefore, that harbours are 
exclusively to be found. And when we no- 
tice, that we are considering these with re- 
ference to ships of 300 tons register measure- 
ment, it will be found, that neither this, nor 
any other coast open to the sea, will afford 
harbours for shipping of such dimensions but 
at very considerable intervals, — in many parts, 
intervals of several hundred miles. It is the 
commercial facilities which the harbours af- 
ford, that constitute the value of the sea coast; 
without these conveniences mere extent is of 
little importance. 

Estimating by this criterion, it follows, as 
a necessary deduction, (which, as already ob- 
served, may be demonstrated by mere inspec- 
tion of the map,) that as far as relates to the 
shores of the St. Laurence throughout the 



30 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



whole extent of that part of it, which has been 
included in this estimate of 1310 miles of 
navigable coast, fronting agricultural territory, 
scarcely a mile can be found, (with the excep- 
tion, perhaps, of about fifty or sixty miles 
situated immediately above Cape Chat,) in 
which there are not road -steads to be found 
where ships may ride with safety. 

With regard to the comparative advantages 
to be derived from foreign shipping, a far 
greater extent of surface of country upon the 
banks of this river is therefore benefited in 
this respect, than upon a like extent of the 
coast on the main ocean. 

The possession of this improveable country 
and its navigable shores, guarantees the peace- 
able possession and uninterrupted occupa- 
tion of the whole coast of Labradore, of 
Newfoundland, and of the numerous islands 
in the gulph of St. I^aurence. These im- 
portant and improveable coasts altogether 
amount to several thousand miles of the 
most productive and valuable fisheries ; — 
fisheries, which, to any country, would be of 
immense importance, as well on account of 
the maritime facilities which they aflford, by 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 31 

being a nursery for sailors, &c. as on account 
of the pecuniary purposes and conveniencies 
to which they are adapted ; and, therefore, 
the possession of them to Great Britain, by 
so far securing her own maritime resources, 
and preventing the aggrandisement of that of 
other nations, are invaluable. 

The countries which form these extensive 
fishing-coasts, consist generally of barren 
rocky mountains, the barren and inaccessible 
nature of which, protects and encourages the 
prosperity, and actually secures the value of 
the fisheries. Such fisheries, situated in front 
of fertile soil, would be comparatively of 
small importance ; the cultivation of the land 
would, no doubt, divide the attention of those 
employed in the fisheries ; a variety of pur- 
suits would inevitably create an irregular de- 
mand for labour, so as to completely disorga- 
nize the necessary machinery of an extensive 
fishery; under existing circumstances, however, 
no such inconveniences need be apprehended. 

Notwithstanding the general inaccessible 
nature of this fishing-coast, there are, how- 
ever, to be found in the mouths of rivers, &c. 
places of sufficient extent to admit of such 



32 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

towns and villages as might be necessary for 
the convenience of the fisheries. 

If Great Britain keep the entire possession 
of these fisheries, — guarded npon the one hand 
by her terra-firma possessions in that quarter, 
and upon the other by her powerful fleets; 
and do not again cede a share of them either 
to the French, Americans, or any other power : 
—if she, also, hold the fine level country which 
she now possesses upon the banks of the 
St. Laurence and the Lakes above Quebec, 
without again shackling the industry either of 
the woodm: n who clears its forests ; of the culti- 
vator of its fertile plains ; or, of the fisherman 
who bestows his attention upon these productive 
fisheries : — if, moreover, she prohibits all inter- 
course between our West-Indian islands and the 
United States ; and enforces a regulation of 
the duties upon the timber she imports from 
countries other than from her own colonies, cal- 
culated to promote her own shipping-interest, 
the growing prosperity of these colonies would 
not only greatly augment her resources, and 
prove a safe guarantee of her maritime power 
and independence, but the mutual benefits, 
whicji thfe one colony would derive from the 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 33 

Other, would also tend greatly to secure to her 
a permanency of all these important advan- 
tages. The reciprocity of interest that will in 
consequence circulate among all the numerous 
classes, which a variety of pursuits distinguish 
throughout her colonies, must necessarily pro- 
mote in them such a firm attachment as will 
prove the greatest possible security of these 
possessions. The markets, which would 
thereby be opened and secured to these pro- 
vinces, would inspire every class of society 
with such a spirit of enterprise and energy as 
would set every branch of industry in motion, 
encouraging and supporting ^ach other, like 
the constituent parts of a well constructed 
piece of machinery : the timber-trade, giving 
employment to the woodman and the raftsman ; 
the exportation of grain, flour, &c. and provi- 
sions, encouraging the agriculturist ; the ex- 
portation of fish and oil, communicating fresh 
energy to the industry of the fisherman ; 
and the grand result of the whole, yielding 
abundance of profits and emoluments to our 
merchants, and affording employment to our 
shipping, would thereby contribute to the ad- 
vantage of all classes in these provinces, as 

D 



34 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

well as to the encouragement of the commer- 
cial concerns of the mother-country. The 
West-Indian colonists likewise, instead of expe- 
riencing the uncertainty and inconveniences 
which they have hitherto done in obtaining 
supplies of American produce, would receive a 
regular and abundant supply. For, under such 
a line of policy, many of the very articles, par- 
ticularly flour, instead of being shipped from 
the ports of the United States, under the sys- 
tem of management which prevailed previous 
to the American embargoes, &c. would be 
shipped from the ports of the St. Laurence, 
and thereby provide the British provinces with 
the most ample resources for the supply of 
their sister colonies in the West-Indies. Not 
only the inhabitants of the continental pro- 
vinces therefore, but also our West-Indian colo- 
nists, grateful for the benefits afforded by this 
variety of pursuits and diversity of interests, so 
essential to their general convenience and pros- 
perity, and for which, being thus combined, 
organized, and protected, they must feel indebt- 
ed to the mother-country, would, from the most 
powerful impulse, self-interest, cherish the most 
genuine loyalty and affection towards her. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 35 

Thus far with respect to the advantages pos- 
sessed by the British colonies, as far as relates 
to their geographical position and commercial 
facilities : the next object, and the first in im- 
portance, is their produce and manufactures. 



D 2 



56 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



CHAP II. 



OF THE PRESENT STATE OF OUR AMERICAN 
PROVINCES, PARTICULARLY THE CANA- 
DAS, THEIR SOIL, CLIMATE, INHABIT- 
ANTS, STATE OF AGRICULTURE AND EX- 
PORTS, ETC. 

In order that a more adequate idea may be 
formed of those great advantages, which the 
mother-country may derive from the vast re- 
sources inherent in these provinces, particularly 
the Canadas, through the medium of her ship- 
ping and manufacturing interests, I shall here 
take a cursory view of the quality of their soil; 
of their climate ; of their inhabitants ; and of 
the state of agriculture. My observations up- 
on these, however, shall be carried no further 
than is necessary to assist in forming opinions, 
concerning the discouragements which these 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 37 

provinces have laboured under, and the im- 
proveable capabilities which they possess, in 
respect to the above important sources of 
national wealth. 



QUALITY OF THE SOIL OF UPPER AND LOWER 
CANADA. 

From the river Little Metis, which is about 
two hundred miles below, upwards to St. 
Ann's, which is about sixty-five miles above 
Quebec, the country, although not mountainous, 
(except upon the north side of the St. Laurence 
below Quebec,) nevertheless forms a very 
wneven and irregular surface. 

The kinds, of which the soil consists, are of 
great variety ; being in some parts a very light 
sandy soil upon a sandy or gravelly bottom; 
and in other parts a strong clay, with almost all 
the variety of gradations which are to be found 
between these two extremes. There is, how 
ever, a much larger proportion* of the very 
heavy sort than of the very light: indeed, 
throughout this tract of country, which is an 
extent of about two hundred ond slxty-jinQ 



38 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

miles upon the banks of the St. Laurence, the 
soil, with respect to kind, consists generally of 
a strong loam upon a sub-soil of red clay or 
till. 

With regard to quality ; supposing the soil 
arranged into four distinct rates, there is not 
much of the best or first rate; neither is there 
much of the worst or fourth rate ; the average 
may be considered to be about a medium be- 
tween the second and third rate qualities/^ 



* In regard to the short description, which I have given of 
the soil, in order that a true and correct idea may be formed 
of its quality, it is necessary to state, that the scale by which 
I have formed ray estimate in this respect, is the quality of 
the land in Great Britain, divided into four distinct rates. 
And further, to avoid the ambiguity and obscurity so general 
in descriptions of the qualities of land, I think it necessary 
also to state, that, in judging of the quality, the intrinsic or 
natural fertilizing capabilities are alone kept in view. For, 
if the vicinity of large cities, navigable rivers, or any external 
improvements were to be taken into consideration, and the 
soil rated according to its value, there would, under such 
circumstances, be no certainty of ascertaining the precise 
description of thie soil, although the rate were stated. As 
for example, a third rate in the vicinity of a large city might 
be let at as high a rent as a first rate quality at a considera- 
ble distance : or one farmer by proper management might 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 39 

From St. Ami's, upwards, to the border of 
Upper Canada, which is about sixty miles 
above Montreal, being a length of about one 
hundred and seventy-five miles upon both sides 
of the St. Laurence; and from the border of 
Lower Canada, upwards, to the extremity of 
the settlements of the upper province at De- 
troit, being an extent of about five hundred 
and fifty miles upon the north banks of the St. 
Laurence and the lakes, makes, from St. Ann's 
upwards, a length of about seven hundred and 
txventy-Jive miles of a beautiful and level coun- 
try. The general characteristics of the face of 
the country, throughout this vast extent, afford 
but little diversity in point of appearance. The 
kinds of soil, however, consist of considerable 
variety: but that which mostly prevails is a 
strong deep loam, which in many parts con- 
raise, upon a third rate, a crop doubly fertile compared, with 
that whiclf might be raised upon a first-rate soil, by another 
inferior in skill and industry. But as neither of these cir- 
cumstances could essentially alter or bring about any perma- 
nent change in the fertilizing capabilities, which these soils 
naturally and intrinsically possess, it would consequently be 
absurd to rate them, in point of quality, according to their 
respective values, or present state of fertility. 



40 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

sists of a mixture of rich blue clay and friable 
earth : this is a kind of soil, which, in whatever 
country it is found, generally constitutes that 
of the best quality. 

A large proportion of this vast extent of 
country is. of \h^ first rate quality, and the 
average of the whole may be said to be excel- 
lent. 

Reckoning to the depth of about fifty 
miles from the St. Laurence and the Lakes, 
(which depth would include all the land yet 
granted by the British government,) perhaps 
there is scarcely to be found, either in Europe 
or America, a tract of country, equal to this in 
extent, which comparatively contains so large a 
proportion of a first rate quality of land ; and cer- 
tainly there is not, in any other part of the United 
States, excepting Louisiana and other parts 
upon the west side of the Alegany mountains, 
and upon the banks of the St. Laurence and 
its lakes, an equal extent of territory, wherein 
even one-third of the quantity of first rate soil 
would be found. Indeed, in many parts of this 
vast country, there are occasionally to be found 
uninterrupted tracts of land of a first rate qua- 
lity, even to the extent of a hundred miles in 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 41 

length ; whereas, in most countries, one-third of 
that extent of an uninterrupted range of such 
quality is rarely to be met with. 



CLIMATE. 

The climate of any particular country ought 
to be estimated in proportion to the healthy, 
agreeable, and fertilizing properties, which it 
possesses: the climate of Upper and Lower 
Canada enjoys these advantages in an eminent 
degree. 

The summer, indeed, is extremely hot; but, as 
the atmosphere is remarkably clear and pure, 
the heat is therefore not so oppressive as in 
climates where the air is more close and 
sultry. 

The winter is intensely cold : but, as the frost 
continues without intermission during winter, 
and generally with a clear sky and a fine dry 
air, it is thereby rendered both healthy and 
pleasant; the cold being infinitely less pene- 
trating thau in moist climates. 

Foggy weather is very little experienced so 
fixr up the country as Montreal; or, indeed, 



42 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



much farther up than Quebec, and there only, 
occasionally in spring. But, down the river, 
particularly towards its mouth, easterly winds 
are invariably attended with thick fogs. 

The spring sets in with a clear sky, and the 
air generally continues frosty until the snow is 
quite gone. The snow is, therefore, principally 
carried off by the rays of the sun ; for it is but 
seldom that natural thaws are much experien- 
ced, until the snow is completely carried off. 
Rain seldom continues long at a time, in the 
spring; except in the mountainous districts. 
The spring in Lower Canada sets in earlier or 
later, in any. particular place, as it is higher or 
lower upon the River St. Laurence ; and this, 
even in the same parallel of latitude, being- 
earlier as the country extends to the westward. 

As the country at the mouth of the St. Lau- 
rence is very mountainous, and less so towards 
the westward, so in proportion there is less 
rain and foggy weather, as the country extends 
in that direction; the spring, indeed, sets in 
earlier, and the climate is in every respect 
more agreeable and favourable to agriculture, 
in any particular place upon the St. Laurence, 
in proportion as it is distant from the sea. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 43 



In spring, the land is generally fit for plough- 
ing as soon as it is clear from snow. For, not- 
withstanding the severity of the frost, it does 
not penetrate deep into the ground, which is 
protected from its severity, by the snow falling 
in considerable quantities in the earlier part of 
the winter. By the time, therefore, that the 
snow disappears, the frost is also generally 
quite gone. The snow continuing upon the 
land during winter is a circumstance remark- 
ably in favour of fall-wheat, fall-tares, or 
clover, which may have been sown with the 
preceding crop: for, continuing until a late 
period of the spring, it thereby prevents these 
crops from being exposed to a scorching sun 
through the day, and frost during the night; 
alternations of weather which occasionally 
occur early in the spring, in all latitudes liable 
to frost, sometimes pulling up such of these 
crops as may be so exposed, by the very roots; 
a circumstance not unfrequent in Great Bri- 
tain. As has been already observed, rainy 
weather in the spring seldom continues long at 
ii time ; the farmers are therefore seldom under 
the necessity of harrowing in any of their seeds 



44 IMPORTANCE OF THfi 

whilst the ground is wet, which is a circum- 
stance of material consequence in agriculture. 
Indeed, the seed of all kinds of crops being 
harrowed in dry, is an advantage of the first 
importance, but more particularly in the cul- 
ture of hemp and flax. 

Hoar frost but seldom occurs in spring, 
which is a circumstance very favourable to 
every species of the earlier green crops, such 
as hemp, flax, pease, early potatoes, and a 
variety of others. 

During the summer season, and also the 
fall, rain or thick weather seldom continues 
more than two or three days together ; not often, 
indeed, more than one day at a time : a most 
material circumstance in favour of making 
clean summer-fallow ; raising fallow-crops ; 
making hay; and performing the necessary 
operations in the management of hemp; as well 
as other agricultural avocations. 

During winter, the thermometer fluctuates 
from 2-5° above zero, down to 28°, and some- 
times even as low as 30° below that point. 
But, when such an intense degree of cold occurs, 
it seldom continues longer than two, or at most 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 45 

three days at a time ; and such severities sel- 
dom occur more than once in a season ; and, 
perhaps, in only one season out of two or 
three: the greatest degree of cold is generally 
felt in February. 

There are not, perhaps, above two or three 
days in the course of the winter so intensely 
cold as to prevent ship-carpenters, and other 
workmen employed out of doors, from follow- 
ing their occupations : this circumstance af- 
fords one of the most convincing and decisive 
proofs, that the cold in Canada, compared with 
the cold in Great Britain, is not by any means 
experienced in a degree of severity proportion- 
ata to the degree of cold shewn by the ther- 
mometer 

Throughout the season, there is a much 
greater proportion of clear weather in the Ca- 
nadas than in Great Britain ; even in the neigh- 
bourhood of Quebec, and about Montreal 
and in Upper Canada, where the country is 
less mountainous and more remote from the 
sea, the proportion of clear weather, compared 
with that experienced with a clouded atmo- 
sphere, is still greater. Upon the whole, the 
climate of the Canadas, compared with the 



46 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



climate of Great Britain, is equally agreeable; 
equally favourable to agriculture; and actually 
more healthy. 



INHABITANTS. 

The population of the Canadas is cotnposed 
of the descendants of the French colonists, 
who inhabited Canada at the conquest, and 
emigrants from the mother-country and the 
United States ; perhaps the descendants of the 
French colonists constitute three-fourths or 
four- fifths of the whole population. 

As no census has been taken since the year 
1783, it becomes impossible to state accurately 
what the population at present is. 

Mr. Harriot, in his History of Canada, com- 
putes the population of the lower province at 
250,000, and that of the upper province at 
80,000, in 1808 ; this computation I am inclin- 
ed to think, from the opinions which I have 
heard upon the subject, is rather under than 
over-rated. 

However, taking this statement of Mn 
Harriot's as a true estimate of the population 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 47 



in 1808, and with the ordinary increase 
amongst the inhabitants, and also taking into 
account the extraordinary inilnx of settlers from 
the United States, occasioned by Mr. Jefferson's 
embargo and other measures of the American 
government, between the year 1808 and the 
breaking out of hostilities between the two 
countries, I think we may now reasonably 
compute the population of Upper and Lower 
Canada at 375,000, of which the lower 
province may contain about 275,000. 

With regard to the respective characters of 
each of the three divisions or classes of people, 
composing the population of these provinces, 
and in the first place respecting the descendants 
of the French colonists, it may be observed, tliat 
they are honest and upright in their reciprocal 
dealings to a degree scarcely any where to be 
met with where so much ignorance prevails, 
or indeed perhaps any where ;— sociable and 
polite in their manners ; and, as far as regards 
economy, they are sensible, ingenious, and in- 
dustrious 

It is very uncommon and extraordinary that 
these characteristics, and an almost total want 
of education, should exist together; and this 



48 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



circumstance shews what the people might be. 
if they enjoyed the benefit of education. 

The British and Americans may rank to- 
gether in point of industry and economy; and, 
from the advantages which they enjoy from 
education, are superior to the descendants of 
the French colonists in point of enterprise. 

Concerning the attachment of the inhabi- 
tants of the Canadas to the mother- country ; 
and, in the first place, regarding those who may 
be distinguished as the English part of the 
Canadian population, who are composed of 
emigrants from the mother-country and of the 
descendants of English emigrants, we may 
make the following remarks, viz. respecting 
those who emigrate from the mother-country it 
may be observed, that such emigrations are 
sometimes occasioned by a predilection for 
republican principles. But it may be easily 
perceived, that, when this is the case, a British 
province, in the vicinity of a republican country, 
would not be the choice of such people. In- 
deed, such persons invariably land in the United 
States, from whence, however, many of them 
from disappointment ultimately, find their way 
into Canada, 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 49 

For, finding that this republic has also laws, 
which must be obeyed, as well as taxes which 
must be discharged ; findmg that prodigality 
and idleness in this country, as well as in that 
which they left, is also accompanied with pover- 
ty and distress; finding that the poor miserable 
soil so generally prevalent throughout the 
United States not only yields the cultivator 
but a scanty subsistence, but, is only to be ob- 
tained at a high price ; and, finding, too, that 
a reciprocity of the grosest rudeness and ill- 
manners, — insult and indignity to the rulers who 
must be obeyed, and contempt of the laws 
and authorities which must be submitted to, 
are a few of the characteristic of this country 
and its republican government: — this paradise, 
therefore, about which they had been so long 
dreaming, at last thus disappearing, they find 
themselves in reality transported, — transported 
from the solid comforts their native country 
afforded into the midst of difiiculty and 
distress. Thus cured of their political mad- 
ness, and ashamed to return to their native 
land, the fertile plains upon the banks of the 
St. Laurence and the blessings of the British 
constitution, therefore, attract many of these, 



50 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

as well as others, from the barren wastes of 
New England to the British provinces. 

After these people have not only learned, 
by such experience, that if American liberty 
exceed that of British, it is only in immorality 
and licentiousness, but that the liberty and 
protection, speciously indicated by this repub- 
lican constitution, is precarious and uncertain^ 
and in many respects only to be enjoyed in 
idea; whereas, the blessings of the British con- 
stitution, being equally extensive, are enjoyed 
in reality; such of these people, therefore, 
as find their way into the British provinces, 
need not be doubted as to their attachment to 
the British government. 

Considering these circumstances, and that 
the other part of those who are denominated the 
British part of the population is composed of 
emigrants, who have, in the first instance, 
made choice of the British provinces, and 
of the descendants of these and such as have 
been described, it is natural to conclude, that 
the whole of those who are commonly deno- 
minated the English part of the Canadians, must 
remain firmly attached to the British govern- 
ment. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 51 

The American part of the Canadian colo- 
nists consists of two descriptions of people, 
Tiz. loyalists who left the United States during 
the late American war and emigrants. The 
former, considering the losses and sacrifices 
they experienced from adhering to the British 
interest, cannot certainly be doubted in point 
of loyalty : and, the greater part of the lat- 
ter having left the United States, from dis- 
content at the political measures pursued by 
their own government, and finding the privi- 
leges and advantages which they enjoy under 
the British government superior to those they 
enjoyed under the government of the United 
States, there can be no doubt entertained but 
that these also are firmly attached to the 
British interest. 

The descendants of the French colonists, 
who inhabited the colony at the conquest, have 
uniformly given proofs of their firm attachment 
to the British government and its interests ; 
particularly in the part they acted during the 
late American war. They certainly at that 
time manifested their loyalty and attachment 
in a manner highly honourable. — Loyally at- 
tached to the mother-country, these colonists 

e2 



52 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

manfully stood forward in defence of her in- 
terests ; in many instances they were muster- 
ed, led forth, and encouraged to fight, and 
bleed in support of the parent country^ 
by their Roman Catholic priests ; some of 
whom actually fell in such patriotic and 
praise-worthy examples. These and many 
other instances of loyalty might be circum- 
stantially adduced : but, should any one doubt, 
the events passing at the present time afford 
the most incontestable proof of the loyalty of 
the whole inhabitants of these provinces 



STATE OF AGRICULTURE; 

Such is the present state of agriculture in 
Canada, that almost any change would be for 
the better. If it can be said that any thing 
approximating to system in cropping is obser- 
ved, it is in that of wheat and grass alternately : 
or, it may be more properly said, that the land 
is cropped with wheat the one year and lies 
waste the next, and in many instances this mode 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 53 

is pursued, even for generations, without manure 
being applied. The wheat is invariably sown 
in spring, and the land receives only one 
ploughing. 

Clean summer-fallow is unknown in the 
country, and, except in the neighbourhood 
of Quebec and Montreal, the farmers are 
equally ignorant of drill-crop, or indeed of 
fallow-crops of any description. After stating 
these facts it is almost unnecessary to add that 
artificial grasses are also unknown. 

The above mode of cropping prevails gene- 
rally over the Canadas, but more particularly 
throughout the lower province. Any devi- 
ation from it is occasionally by the intervention 
of a trifling quantity of pease, flax, oats^ or 
barley. Near the farmers houses there are 
also generally to be found some small patches 
of Indian-corn and tobacco, which, toge» 
ther, perhaps, receive the greater part of 
the manure which is applied : these crops, not- 
withstanding, are seldom or never introduced 
into a rotation of cropping over any farm 
generally. 

The land, however, is so very excellent, , in 
general, that crops of forty bushels, per 



54 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

French acre, (equal to fifty-four per English or 
sixty-six per Scotch acre,) are frequently to be 
met with ; either where the land is first cleared, 
or where it may have received any improve- 
ment; such as lying several years in grass 
instead of one; manured and cropped with 
pease, &c. ; for, besides these superficial im- 
provements, there are scarcely any other 
known in the country. But the wretched sys- 
tem of cropping which is practised, soon re- 
duces such spots of land, as may be found 
either from their pristine qualities, or from 
recent improvements, in this high state of 
fertility, to such a degree of poverty that they 
do not, perhaps, yield more than ten or twelve, 
or even, in some instances, more than eight 
or nine bushels, per acre. 

Indeed, so much does the pristine state of fer- 
tility of the soil and its ultimate reduction, an- 
swer the above description, that the price of land 
is estimated by the same rale by which a horse 
is valued, namely, by age, — the older the 
worse But, in Great Britain, land is valued 
upon a principle the very opposite to this ; 
there it is known to have improved, rather than 
fallen back, by cultivation, even under the very 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 55 

worst system of management; I mean so 
far as relates to the native quality of the 
earth, and not as to its immediate state of 
fertility. 

Such, indeed, is the natural superiority and 
fertility of the land of these provinces, gene- 
rally, that when it is either purposely laid 
down to remain in meadow, or otherwise 
escapes the plough for a few years, that it 
generally produces the most luxuriant growth 
of natural clover. This circumstance, not 
only proves the natural good quality of the 
soil, but also indicates the expediency of a- 
dopting some system of cropping which would 
embrace that valuable grass. 

Respecting the quantity of land under cul- 
tivation, the only means of ascertaining its 
amount, is by forming a computation from the 
statement of the quantity which was ascertain- 
ed to have been under cultivation in 1 783 ; 
and in forming this estimate we may also 
form a tolerably correct idea of the quan- 
tity of grain annually produced in these pro- 
vinces. 

In 1783, according to the census then 
taken, by order of government, the population 



5§ IMPORTANCE OF THE 



was stated to have been 113,012 ; the quantity 
of land under cultivation 1,569,818 acres, and 
the quantity of seed sow^n 383,349 bushels. 
Allowing two bushels and a half of seed, per 
acre,* there must have, therefore, been at 
that time 153,339 acres under grain. 

Notwithstanding that the amount of the po- 
pulation is computed at 375,000, in estimating 
the quantity of land under cultivation I shall 
take it at only 360,000. According to the above 
statement, the relative proportions of cleared 
land, of seed sown, and of acres under grain, 
to 360,000 inhabitants, is 5,002,428 acres of 
cleared land, 1,221,159 bushels of seed sown, 
and 488,463 acres under grain. 

It may be observed, that there appears a 
great disproportion between the number of 
acres under grain and the gross quantity of 
cleared land. But it may also be remarked, 
that, in estimating the cultivated land, it is 



'^ The French acre, or arpent, is to the English acre as 
three is to four : the French measure is the standard in Lower 
Canada, and the English measure in the upper province: 
two bushels and an half may be considered the average 
quantity of seed. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 57 

probable that the site of the houses, and gar- 
dens, and space of ground about them, roads, 
banks of rivers, and rivulets, &c. patches of 
wood land reserved amongst the cleared land, 
for supplying fuel, &c. may have been inclu- 
ded ; and these spaces, with the quantity of 
land under flax, &c. and meadow land, the 
quantity of which is very considerable, must 
altogether render the quantity of cleared land, 
not u ed for the production of grain, verj'' 
considerable. 

An estimate of the amount of the grain, 
which is produced, may be made by computing 
the quantity consumed for the people's food ; 
and adding to it the amount of exports ; the 
grain used in the keeping of horses ; feeding of 
stock; and the seed which is sown; which 
altogether will constitute the gross amount. 
From a computation of all these, as under,* it 



* In estimating the quantity of grain used for the food of 
the inhabitants, I shall suppose the quantity requisite to 
each family of six persons, men, women, and children, to 
be equal to that which would be sufficient for four full- 
grown men, and that each man would require 2|lb. of 
bread, meal, Indian corn, and pease, per day. 



58 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

appears, that about 13 or 14 bushels per acre 
is only produced. Considering, therefore, 
what poor crops these are, — the excellent qua- 
lity of the land, — and the favourable climate, 
it is sufficiently evident that an improvement 
in agriculture might be easily effected. 

The wheat which, as has already been ob- 



Now, supposing each bushel to yield 48lbs. of bread, meal, 
&c. each family would in that case require about 75 bushels 
of grain annually. The 360,000 inhabitants, consisting 
of 60,000 families, would, therefore, 

require 4,500,000 bushels. 

To which add the quantity exported . 330,483 
And the amount of the seed . . . 1,221,159 



Making altogether 6,051,642 bushels; 
being equal to about 12| bushels per acre ; besides that used 
in the keeping of horses and feeding of stock, &c. the 
quantity of which cannot be correctly estimated by any rule 
that could be depended upon ; but, at the very highest, 
their amount cannot be supposed to be such as would make 
any very considerable addition to the produce per acre. To 
suppose the average to be about 13 or 14 bushels per acre 
may, perhaps, be pretty near the mark ; and, indeed, from 
the best information which I have been able to collect from 
the inhabitants of the country, as well as from my own obser- 
vations made upon the spot, I am inclined to conclude that 
this is about the average produce per acre. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 59 

served, is invariably sov^n in the spring, is sel- 
dom more than three or four months in the 
ground, and, notwithstanding that circumstance, 
a very good quality is generally produced; 
this is a proof that a very superior quality 
indeed, might be produced if it v^ere sovi^n in 
the fall of the year. 

The climate is remarkably in favour of fall- 
wheat ; for the snow, which continues to a late 
period of the season, shelters it in the early 
part of the spring, from the scorching rays of 
the sun through the day, and the nipping 
frosts in the night, as well as from the dry, cold, 
and bleak, easterly winds in March, which so 
often injure the wheat in Great Britain. 

The introduction of barley into the list of 
crops raised in Canada is only very recent ; and 
the adoption of the culture of it is a proof 
that the Canadian farmers are not so wedded 
to old customs as either to refuse the intro- 
duction of new crops, or, the adoption of 
new schemes of improvement; but, on the 
contrary, it proves that they will try experi- 
ments and persevere in such discoveries as are 
thereby found profitable. 

Barley is not yet generally grown in Canada ; 



60 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



that which is raised is cultivated principally 
below Quebec. 

The growth of pease for exportation^ as may 
be observed by No. 1, in the Appendix, has 
been hut recently attended to ; and, it may be 
observed, that as the prices advanced the 
quantity produced has increased : this circum- 
stance also affords another proof that the 
Canadian farmers are not backward in culti- 
vating whatever crops they find profitable. 



Flax is generally raised throughout the 
country. The crops are generally good ; and, 
indeed, in some instance, excellent : this, how- 
ever, appears to be a secret which the peo- 
ple do not know. For, so little is the manage- 
ment of this article understood, that, notwith- 
standing the good crops which are produced, it 
seldom turns out to be worth the trouble and 
expense incurred in working it ; and, perhaps, 
there is hardly any instance of its being found 
profitable merely from the circumstance of its 
being improperly managed after it is pulled. 
For both flax and seed are completely spoiled 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 61 



in the process of management which succeeds 
the operation of pulling. 

The Canadian farmers appear not to know,, 
that after flax is pulled, the seed should be 
separated from it as soon as possible ; and 
that the flax and the seed then require treat- 
ment so very different from each other, that 
what is necessary to the one is destruction to the 
other ; both in point of quantity and quality. 

As soon as the flax is pulled it is generally 
suffered to lie in handful s or so, upon the 
ground which produced it, for the purpose 
of being watered ; and in this state it remains 
until this purpose is understood to be accom- 
plished. 

The loss occasioned by entirely watering- 
flax upon the grass, is immense ; the injury it 
thereby receives, both in quantity and quality, 
is very great ; and, in many instances, such as 
completely to ruin the crops. For, even sup- 
posing it possible, that the under part of that 
which lies thick upon the ground would 
water regularly, that which was uppermost 
being exposed to the dews of night and the 
sun in the day, would become watered in less 
than half the time requisite for that which lies 



62 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

* . _ " ■ . «,, H f f ' ' 

nearest the ground ; consequently, by the 
time that the undermost were watered the 
uppermost would be rotten. This loss and 
inconvenience would, in a certain degree, hap- 
pen under the best and most careful manage- 
ment, according to this process of watering 
altogether upon the grass ; and, therefore, as 
this method is even but imperfectly understood 
in Canada, the loss is, consequently, propor- 
tionably increased. For, as it is laid down 
very thick and with great irregularity, when 
spread out to water, a considerable part of it 
either soon adheres to the ground, or, sinks 
down amongst the roots of grass, or weeds, and 
is thereby mill-dewed or rotten. 

Until the flax is watered, the Canadian 
farmer never thinks of separating the seed 
from it ; the seed is, consequently, not only 
liable to much injury, but the greater propor- 
tion lost. 

The flax, whilst under this process of water- 
ing, being alternately wet with dew or rain, 
and scorched with the rays of the sun, the pods 
soon open, and that which is ripest falls out; 
indeed, of any sort of crop, the best of the seed 
is the most liable to be shaken out. 



BRITISH AMERICA]>f COLONIES. 63 

Besides, the actual loss of the best quality 
of the seed, that which remains is in general 
materially injured; a few rainy days succeed- 
ing each other will sprout every grain of it : 
and although such a continuance of rainy wea- 
ther seldom happens during the harvest in 
Canada, yet certainly such occurrences some- 
times take place ; consequently, the flax-«eed 
then exposed will be inevitably ruined for the 
purpose of sowing. 

The flax, upon being considered watered, is 
taken up, bound in sheaves, and the seed then 
threshed out: and such is the favourable state 
of the climate and superior quality of the seed, 
that notwithstanding all the bad treatment 
which it receives, that which remains is 
generally found to be of a good quality : in- 
deed, if properly managed, it is in point of qua- 
lity equal to Dutch seed ; and would answer 
the soil and climate of Great Britain equally as 
well as that from Holland 



Hemp. — For some years past a considerable 
quantity of hemp has been produced in Upper 



64 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



Canada ; nearly in a sufficient quantity for the 
supply of that province with cordage. The 
proper and profitable method of cultivating and 
managing it, however, io all the stages of the 
necessary process through which it goes, from 
the time of its being sown, to the period of its 
being cleaned, is far from being well under- 
stood in that province; and, in the lower pro- 
vince the culture of it may be said to be hitherto 
unknown. 

The experiments hitherto made in the culti- 
vation of this article in Lower Canada have 
chiefly failed; not in the smallest degree, how- 
ever, from any unfavourableness either in the 
soil or climate ; but merely from the ignorance 
of those who have hitherto made the experi- 
ments. 

The Canadian farmers failed from their igno- 
rance of its general management; particularly 
of the process which it undergoes after being 
pulled, as may be naturally conjectured from 
what I have observed concerning flax: and 
those who have tried the cultivation of it by 
way of example to the Canadian farmers, have 
generally failed of success on account of their 
ignorance of agriculture in general. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 65 

One, in particular, of these sage experimen- 
talists recommended to the Canadian farmers 
to sow hemp instead of wheat, because their 
land was exhausted with the growth of that 
crop; and did actually himself, upon a farm of 
about one hundred acres, which he had pro- 
cured for the purpose, notwithstanding this 
farm was in a very reduced and exhausted 
state, sow about twenty-five or thirty acres of 
hemp, as a commencement. This was a quan- 
tity sufficiently large for a farm in a high state 
of cultivation, and of three or four times the 
extent of the one he occupied : of course this 
experimental crop was not worth the pulling ; 
and I believe never was wholly pulled. 

When we consider, therefore, that this inge- 
nious speculator recommended hemp as a crop 
suitable to land that would not produce wheat, 
— that he had actually sown it upon such land, 
which of course failed of producing a crop 
worth the reaping, it is evident, that if this curi- 
ous specimen of husbandry had any effect at 
all, it must have been to convince the Canadian 
farmers that hemp was not a crop suitable to 
the country. 

1^ 



66 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

Instead of recommending hemp as a substi- 
tute for wheat, it would have been more com- 
patible with common sense, and the rules of 
good husbandry, to have recommended the 
growth of hemp to the Canadian farmers, that 
they might have had the more abundant crops 
of wheat. He might have done this with great 
propriety. For, if land be rendered capable of, 
and has actually yielded a good crop of wheat, 
it would then produce an abundant crop of 
hemp, besides being again in a proper condition 
to yield another fertile return of wheat, or any 
other sort of grain. 

It is well known that the length of this crop 
is one of its most essential qualities ; and, conse- 
quently, if land be exhausted with wheat, it is 
in a miserable condition indeed to produce 
hemp. If hemp be short, it is almost good for 
nothing, being incapable of being wrought. 
Besides, it is peculiar to this, and almost all 
other green crops, that if they are luxuriant 
they actually improve the land : but if poor and 
stunted, they ruin it; whereas, the flour produ- 
ced from a bad crop of wheat will be about 
as good, in point of quality, as that which is 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. W 



produced from the grain of the most luxuriant 
crop. 



From the bad system of cropping, which is 
practised, the land, in point of fertility, is rather 
in a reduced state. This circumstance, there- 
fore, certainly in some degree generally ope- 
rates against the cultivation of both hemp and 
flax. There are nevertheless to be found, 
throughout the Canadas generally, upon every 
farm, even where the land is most reduced, 
certain pieces of land fit for producing very 
fertile crops of either hemp or flax: for in- 
stance, land newly taken in ; small pieces under 
pease, meadow, or what may have otherwise 
been several years under grass ; or spots that 
may, from one or other of a variety of causes, 
be more than ordinarily fertile: amongst these 
such a choice might be made, by any one v/ho 
possessed any tolerably accurate idea of agri- 
culture, and the cultivation and management of 
hemp and flax, as would ensure the profitable 
cultivation of these crops. 

Considering that the land is in general well 
adapted to the cultivation of hemp and flax; 

f2 



6B IMPORTANCE OP THE 



that our government are disposed to give eii- 
coLiragement to the growth of hemp; and that 
good crops of flax, although spoiled in the 
watering, are raised throughout the country in 
general ; it is therefore evident, to any one at all 
acquainted with agriculture, and the means 
which have generally proved successful, in the 
introduction of improvements in other coun- 
tries, particularly the rapid success which at- 
tended the means used for improving the culti- 
vation of flax in Scotland, that the result of a 
little well-directed attention to the cultivation 
of hemp in these provinces would, undoubtedly, 
be the abundant supply of the British market 
with that important article. 



With respect to the state of agriculture in 
general, in British America, it maybe observed, 
that very little alteration has yet taken place in 
the wretched system of management which 
prevailed when we first took possession of 
these colonies : the increase in the exports of 
agricultural produce has been chiefly owing to 
the extension of — and not to the improvement of 
agriculture. If prober measures were adopted. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 69 

however, to bring about an improvement of 
agriculture, in general, in these provinces, the 
present unimproved state of agriculture; the 
superior quality of the soil; the favourable 
climate ; and the ingenuity and industry of the 
people, are circumstances which would un- 
doubtedly ensure the most certain success: 
and the vast benefit and advantages which 
would result to the mother country, as well as 
to her colonists, from such an improvement, 
ought to stimulate her to undertake its intro- 
duction.* 



ARTICLES OF EXPORT FROM THE BRITISH 
NORTH-AMERICAN PROVINCES. 

The articles exported from Upper and 
Lower Canada are, the produce of the forest, 



* The attention of the board of agriculture might be most 
profitably directed towards the improvement of the system of 
agriculture pursued in these colonies. 



70 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

viz. furs, square oak and pine timber, masts, 
spars, staves, deals, &c. and pot and pearl 
ashes; the produce of agriculture, such as 
wheat, flour, bread, provisions, &c. Besides 
these, the Canadian exports consist of a nume- 
rous list of other articles, as enumerated in 
No. 1, in the Appendix; a list which not 
only shows the variety of which these ex- 
ports consist, but also exhibits an interest- 
ing view of the abundant resources of these 
provinces. 

The principal articles exported from New 
Brunswick^ and Nova Scotia are, lumber, 
pot and petrl ashes, provisions, live stock, 
fish, coal, gypsom or plaster of Pa- 
ris, &c. 

These provinces are very advantageously si- 
tuated for the fisheries, particularly Nova Scotia. 
They have, however, both paid great attention 
to this branch of industry, by which means these 
fisheries are now brought to such a degree of 
perfection, as to render supplies of fish of any 
description from the United States to our West- 
Indian colonies altogether unnecessary. For, 
with the supplies of cod-fish which may be ob- 
tained from Newfoundland, and of salmon and 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 71 

shad from Canada, these colonies are not only 
sufficient to supply our West-Indian posses- 
sions with fish, but also the most extensive 
demand which we can secure from other 
markets. The lumber furnished by these 
two provinces is mostly from New Bruns- 
wick : and consists principally of masts, spars, 
square pine, deals, boards, scantling, black 
birch, &c. 

These colonies are sufficiently capable of 
supplying the demand both of the mother- 
country and her West-Indiau colonies, with 
every kind of lumber, (i. e. timber or wood,) 
except those kinds which are only pro- 
duced in tropical climates, such as mahogany, 
lignum vitae, &c. : and, (with Newfoundland 
in respect to fish,) of supplying our West-Indian 
islands with grain, flour, meal, bread, fish, pro- 
visions, live stock, &c. And also upon a pro- 
per disposition of our commercial concerns in 
regard to drawing the produce of that part of 
the United States bordering upon the waters 
which have their out-let to the sea by the St. 
Laurence, and the necessary attention being 
paid to the encouragement of improvements in 
agriculture, these colonies would, in a very fe\V 



72 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

years, yield the mother-country all the wheat, 
hemp, and flax, which she requires from 
foreign parts. 

With respect to their adequacy to furnish 
such supplies, some may, perhaps, urge the 
smallness of the proportion of these articles 
which have hitherto been supplied, and may 
press it as a presumptive proof of their in- 
adequacy to furnish them. 

To this objection it may be answered, in the 
first place, that the British colonies have long 
been crippled by so many shackles, as shall be 
made plainly appear, that they have never yet 
had a fair opportunity of ascertaining how far 
they could have furnished these supplies ; and, 
in the next place, whenever any opportunities 
have been allowed, for their resources to flow 
in their proper channel, they have given the 
most ample proof of their being adequate to 
supply the most extensive demand. To argue, 
therefore, that the British American provinces 
are inadequate to furnish these supplies, upon 
the ground of what they have hitherto done, 
would be as preposterous, as to assert that the 
British West-Indian colonies cannot supply the 
mother-country with coffee, because that article 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 73 

is permitted to be introduced from Turkey 
and Bourbon for domestic use, or that the Bri- 
tish manufacturers are inadequate to supply 
onr domestic wants, because, French, Germany 
Russian, East-lndian, and other foreign manu- 
factures are allowed to be imported for home 
consumption ^ 



After having made these observations con- 
cerning the nature of the properties and quali- 
ties which these provinces possess ; consider- 
ing that the commercial interests of Great Bri- 
tain is the main object which I have in view, 
particularly her shipping interest, — that these 
provinces, notwithstanding the many discou- 
ragements they have laboured vmder, have 
lately, (when a little relieved by our ruinous 
suspending-laws, and licensing-system, acciden- 
tally ceasing to operate with their usual vigour 
and effect in favour of our enemies,) afforded 
a very large proportion of the employment of our 
shipping, even equal to upwards of one-third 
part of all the tonnage which we employ in 
forei2:n trade, — and that these colonies from their 



74 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

resources and capabilities having been hitherto 
neglected, and their interests sacrificed to the 
United States and other foreigners, are there- 
fore evidently capable of contributing to the 
support of our commercial and shipping inte- 
rests, infinitely beyond what they have hitherto 
done. I shall, therefore, in the first place, take 
notice of, the enormous sacrifice of our shipping 
and commerce to the United States occasioned hy 
the great and unjust advantages alloxved them 
over our own American colonists; with some 
other causes of discouragement which these im- 
portant interests have e:vperienced : and, in the 
second place, of the extensive, valuable, and 
improveahle resources and capabilities, possessed 
hy our American provinces^ as 7^espects our 
shipping and commercial interests. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 75 



CHAP. UI. 

OF THE ENORMOUS SACRIFICE OF OUR SHIPPING 
AND COMMERCE TO THE UNITED STATES, 
OCCASIONED BY THE GREAT AND UNJUST 
ADVANTAGES ALLOWED THEM OVER OUR 
OWN AMERICAN COLONISTS ; WITH SOME 
OTHER CAUSES OF DISCOURAGEMENT WHICH 
THESE IMPORTANT INTERESTS HAVE EX- 
PERIENCED. 

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 

With respect to these three important inte- 
rests, viz. of our ship-owners, our merchants, 
and our colonists, they, it may be observed, 
are so intimately connected, that, in most in- 
stances, whatever injures the one proportiona- 
bly injures the other, and 'vice versa. — For 
instance, by increasing the trade of our colo- 
nies, we thereby so far secure additional er^- 
ployment to our ships, — business to our mer- 
chants, and a market for our manufactures ; — 



76 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



thereby securing these important interests in a 
channel wherein no rival has a right to come in 
competition with us in time of peace, and 
wherein no enemy has it in his power to inter- 
rapt the connection in time of war. By secu- 
ring a numerous and extensive merchant-ship- 
ping also, w^e not only thereby provide ourselves 
with the only means by which we can defend 
it, — by which we can protect our trade with 
foreign parts, and secure our safety and inde- 
pendence at home, but we also thereby greatly 
encourage the exportation of our manufac- 
tures and the extension of our commerce in 
general, by an extensive foreign connection, 
necessarily formed and secured by our mari- 
time industry. With respect to our commerce, 
we may, no doubt for a time, so far secure it, 
by employing foreign ships, where our own are 
either directly or indirectly excluded : yet, by 
following such a system we are not only fore- 
going the most valuable part of the profits 
arising from such transactions, but in reality 
meanly submitting to our enemies, and volun- 
tarily surrendering to them the means by which 
alone we acquired our commerce, and by 
which alone we can retain it. In fact, to pur- 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 77 

sue measures adopted either to retain or extend 
our commerce at the expense of our shipping- 
interests, will prove but mean and miserable 
subterfuges, and, if persisted in, will ultimately 
lead to the ruin of our commerce as well as 
our snipping. 

The losses which our shipping and commer- 
cial interests have sustained, from the advan- 
tages allowed the Americans, may be stated 
to have originated and existed principally, — 

In the relaxation of our navigation-laws in 
favour of the United States, by opening the 
ports of our colonies to their ships ; — ^ 

In the admission of the produce of the United 
States into the United Kingdom, at the same rate 
of duties as that of our own colonies ; — 

In the advantages allowed American ships in 
the countervailing duties charged by the British 
and United States governments respectively ; — 

In the inequality of the amount of the duties 
charged upon the lumber we import in general ; — 

In the importation of enemies produce by 
license, &c. ;— and. 

In the high price of our ships, and the great 
expense at which they are navigated, compared 
with those foreign ships with which they have 



78 , ITVrPORTANCE OF THE 



to come in competition. Each of these points, 
consequently, deserve a few observations. 



OF THE RELAXATION OF OUR NAVIGATION- 
LAWS IN FAVOUR OF THE UNITED STATES, 
BY OPENING THE PORTS OF OUR COLONIES 
TO THEIR SHIPS. 

For the encouragement of our shipping, the 
safety of our colonies, and the protection of 
our commerce, our forefathers, at an early pe- 
riod of our maritime consequence, enacted,* 
that no foreign ship should enter the ports of 
our colonies. This law our ancestors, even up 
to the present generation, respected and held 
sacred over every difficulty and distress: — 
viewing this, and other laws,, enacted for the 
same important purpose, as essential to the 
support and protection of our merchant-ship- 
ping and commerce in general ; and also, view- 
ing our merchant-shipping and commerce as 
essential to our maritime power and indepen% 
dence, they considered peace itself as no sacri- 

* See 12 Car. II. c. 18. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 79 

iice to the most scrupulous observation of our 
navigation-laws in general. 

This wise law, so admirably calculated to 
protect and promote the interests of our com- 
merce and our colonies, as well as of our ship- 
ping, has been of late years, however, greatly 
abused, and indeed almost totally disregarded : 
the greatest abuse which it has experienced 
has been in its relaxation in favour of the 
United States of America. 

The act of the 23d Geo. III. c. 39 ; empow- 
ering his Majesty in Council to suspend our 
navigation-laws in favour of the United States, 
led the way to a shameful system of concession 
to America, which we have acted upon towards 
that government ever since. 

The first operation upon this act was to admit, 
by proclamation, the produce of the United 
States into this country, at the same rate of 
duties as was charged upon the produce of our 
own colonies ; * the first of these proclamations 



'* Your Majesty, by the said orders in council, did think 
fit to permit to be imported into the colonies or islands be- 
longing to your Majesty in America or the West.Indies, in 
British ships only, navigated according to law, all such arti- 



80 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

was issued the 14th of May, and the next on 
the 6th of June, 1783. 

This privilege was granted to conciliate and 
satisfy the clamorous disposition of the Ame* 
ricans, when roused by a sense of the privileges 
they had lost by their independence, from find- 
ing themselves placed in the list of other foreign 
nations, and their produce imported into Great 
Britain, was consequently rendered liable to the 
same duties as the produce of other foreign 
countries, — effects which our navigation-laws, 



cles the growth, production, or manufacture, of any of the 
territories of the said United States, (except salted provi- 
sions, and the produce of their fisheries,) as might by law, 
before the declaration of independence, have been imported 
from the countries belonging to the said States into any of 
the said colonies or islands ; but your Majesty, at the same 
time, thought fit to prohibit any commercial intercourse be- 
tween the countries belonging to the United States of Ame- 
rica, and the colonies or islands belonging to your Majesty in 
America or the West-Indies, in ships belonging to the sub- 
jects of the said States. 

OBSERVATION. 

This last regulation, first established by order in council, 
has since been adopted and confirmed by act of parliament ; 
and, though the people of the United States complain of 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 81 

existing at that time, wisely brought about, 
without even the interference of the legislature. 
Had there ever been an instance wherein 
concession and submission had satisfied ava- 
rice and arrested ambition, we might have 
naturally expected that the Americans would 
have been content to have been placed^ in other 
respects, simply upon a footing with other 
nations. But we have found, to our experience, 
that one concession to imposition only makes 
way for anothei',~~that the first compliance with 
an unreasonable demand, however small, is 
actually inviting fresh aggression, — that nations 



this regulation more than any other, it is not new, but is 
founded on the antient law of this country, " which forbids 
" any goods to be imported into, or exported from, any of 
" the colonies belonging to your Majesty in Asia, Africa, or 
" America, except in ships belonging to your Majesty's sub- 
" jects, and navigated according to law." — It is founded also 
upon a public law, approved and adopted by all European 
nations, who have ever claimed a right of restraining the 
trade and navigation of their colonies, in such a manner as, 
in their judgement, will be most conducive to their respective 
interests. It might be proved, if it were necessary, that the 
policy of Great Britain, in this respect, is much more liberal 
than that of France or Spain.— Reports of the Lords of the 
Committee of Privy Council, from Mr, Atcheson's Collection 
of Reports, i^c— Edition 1807. 

G 



82 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



as well as individuals, who endeavour to secure 
friendship by concession, frequently subject 
themselves only to meanness and contempt. 

In fact, the Americans so easily obtained 
this great advantage to which they owe so large* 
a proportion of their shipping, and we conse- 
quently a proportionable loss of ours, that 
they even considered it as no favour. For, ob- 
serving, by his Majesty's proclamation of the 
2d of July, 1783, that their produce was to be 
admitted into our West-Indian settlements, 
but that this privilege did not extend to their 
ships, they, in order to extort from us this fur- 
ther concession, imposed, upon importations 
made in British ships, countervailing duties, 
amounting to an absolute prohibition. f 



* See an account of this enormous increase in page cvii, 
of Mr. Atcheson's book, entitled " American Encroachments 
on British Rights." 

t With respect to the measures which the United States, 
and the provinces of which they are composed, have taken, 
in consequence of his Majesty's order in council, of 2d July, 
the committee find that the state of Maryland has, on this 
account, imposed a duty of five shillings per ton on British 
shipping, at their entrance or clearance in the ports of that 
state, (which is said to be two shillings more than they have 
laid on all other shipping,) and two per cent, ad valorem. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 83 

Instead of meeting this act of hostility with 
corresponding retaHatory measures, the British 



over and above what is now paid> or may hereafter be 
by the citizens of the said state, upon all merchandize and 
manufactures the growth and produce of Great Britain, im- 
ported in any British ship or vessel owned or belongingj in 
part or wholly, to any British subject or subjects. 

And the assembly of Georgia, now sitting, has prohibited 
all intercourse with the British West-India islands, until the 
orders of his Majesty in council be revoked. 

It does not appear that any of the other states have passed 
any legislative act to the like purpose; but, in the assembly 
of Pensylvania, which was sitting when the last accounts 
came away, an act had been read a second time, for imposing 
duties on every ton of British shipping, and on British manu- 
factures and commodities, in like manner as those imposed 
by the state of Maryland, with the addition, that the assem- 
bly of Pensylvania proposed to augment the duty on British 
manufactures and commodities, imported in British shipping, 
to 2 J per cent, ad valorem; and there is intelligence received 
of a general ferment in all the southern and middle states, 
on account of the restrictions laid by bis Majesty's order in 
council. 

The assembly of New York had addressed the Governor 
on the subject, in terms of resentment to Great Britain ; and 
the assembly of Virginia have unanimously resolved, ** That 
the United States, in congress assembled, ought to be em- 
powered to prohibit British vessels from being the carriers 
of the growth or produce of the West-India islands to the 
said States, so long as the order in council shall be continu- 

g2 



84 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



government acted with the most humble sub- 
mission ; and, for " these courtesies,'' actually 
granted the valuable bonus, in the commercial 
treaty of 1794, of trading to our East-Indian 
possessions ; — a privilege which was then, in 
vain sought for, by British merchants. Be- 
sides this concession, extorted from us by the 
insolence, which our pusilanimity had encou- 
raged in this upstart republic, the ports of our 
West-Indian islands were uniformly opened to 
their ships, upon principles that, to their inte* 
rest, were the most favourable which ingenuity 
could have devised, — principled, which shall 
be proved to have secured the carriage of 
almost the whole imports made into these 
islands to American ships. For, although 
their ships were by law^ excluded the ports of 



ed ; or to concert such other measures as shall be thought 
effectual to counteract the designs of Great Britain, with 
respect to the American commerce/' 

The province of South Carolina has laid duties on West- 
Indian produce, from £bQ to =£100 per cent, higher than on 
that of foreign islands : but it appears, that this duty was 
imposed before they had any knowledge of his Majesty's 
order in council, of 2d July. — Reports of the Committee of 
Council, from Mr. Jttcheson's Collection of Reports, S^. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES, 85 



our West-Indian colonies, yet they were, from 
the commencement of the late French war up to 
1807, admitted without the authority of any 
law ; and, after that period, they were admitted, 
by orders in council, according to the Wmeri- 
can-intercourse-bill enacted for that purpose. 

From the commencement of American inde- 
pendence, up to the date of the commercial 
treaty, in 1794, and even up to the present 
hour, we appeared and are still apparently at a 
loss how to rank the Americans, — what privi- 
leges they were entitled to, or what prohibitions 
they ought to be liable to in respect to their 
being placed amongst other foreign nations. 
How unfortunate! that we did not, at their 
very birth as a nation, find out, that they put 
every other foreign nation, with which they 
had dealings, upon a more favourable footing 
than us, — that we did not, instead of meanly 
purchasing an equally favourable footing with 
other nations, in respect to vending our manu- 
factures to that country, by the most enormous 
and unprecedented sacrifices, verily and in- 
deed, put them upon a footing with " the most 
favoured nations," by excluding them as well 
as other foreigners from the ports of our colo- 



86 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

nies,— by charging the same duties upon their 
produce as upon that of other nations, — and 
by imposing a countervailing duty in favour of 
our own ships equal to what they charged in 
favour of theirs, instead of the pitiful sum of 
22^^. balanced against ^3 : 10 : per ton * 

However, in this unfortunate dilemma, with 
respect to what relation the United States 
should stand towards us, we nqt only gave the 
Americans the most unbounded advantages 
over other foreign nations and over our own 
colonists, but also even over British ship- 
owners and British merchants. For the ports 
of our East-Indian colonies were not only 
opened to her ships and to her commerce, 
whilst the British ship-owners and British 
merchants (except the East-India Company) 
were not only excluded, but insulted, by being 
told that, their being admitted to trade to these 
colonies would endanger the safety of the 
whole of our Indian establishments. But no 
such calamity, it would appear, was appre- 
hended, by our government, from this Ameri 
can intercourse in thai quarter. 



See Nos. 3 and 4 in the Appendix. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 87 



This channel of commerce being open to 
these foreigners, and shut against our own mer- 
chants, some of our countrymen were indu- 
ced, from eagerness of gain, to abandon their 
country, and become Americans ; or, so to 
compromise their characters as to create doubts 
of their retaining any attachment to it. 

The British, although undegraded by such 
a comparison, in any other country in the civi- 
lized world, were nevertheless, in order to gain 
the confidence of their own government, in re- 
spect to their being allowed to trade to these 
colonies of their own country, obliged to per- 
sonate a people, who would not, in any coun- 
try, besides England, have been preferred, upon 
the score of peaceable behaviour and honoura- 
ble dealing. 

Nothing surely could be more humiliating 
to an Englishman than to see his countrymen 
metamorphosed into Yanhies, merely to gain 
the confidence of the British government, in 
order to obtain a share of that trade from 
which, by the old established laws of the land, 
foreigners were totally excluded. 

I am neither arguing nor inquiring whether 
this trade should or should not have been 



B8 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



thrown open, as it has been lately, to the Bri- 
tish merchants in general. But surely, British 
merchants had infinitely a better right to it 
than foreigners, who were allowed, in the 
most unreasonable manner, to come into com- 
petition with our East-India Company in this 
trade, which either ought to have been sacred 
to that company, or thrown open to their coun- 
try at large. 

This br^^ncb. of commerce, which was opened 
to the Americans in British India, afforded an 
opportunity, which they embraced to the fullest 
extent, of filling the British American and 
West- Indian colonies with East-Indian manu- 
factures of every description, not only to the 
injury of the East-India Company, but also 
to the injury of British manufacturers. 

This trade being now opened to the country 
in general, however, v^ill form no apology 
whatever for again opening it to the Ameri- 
cans. The former privileges they enjoyed in 
this respect, being im providently granted, can 
give them no claiip ; it is, therefore, to be hoped, 
that their flag, excepting ships which might 
put in in distress, shall never again wave in the 
ports of these or an^y other British colonies. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 89 

Although the Americans were, as already 
observed, and are still, by the strict letter of 
our navigation-laws, excluded from the ports of 
our West-Indian islands, yet this trade was 
opened to them after their independence ; and 
opened, too, upon such principles, as not only 
secured to them the opportunity of furnishing 
produce for the supply of these islands, but, 
also, ultimately secured to them its carriage. 

From the period of American independence 
to the commencement of the late French war, 
the principal afticles of American produce 
were still allowed to be imported into our 
West-Indian settlements in British ships. Con- 
sidering, therefore, that, before the American 
war, these settlements were almost entirely 
supplied from the country which now forms 
the United States, — that the produce of these 
states was afterwards admitted upon the same 
terms as that of our own colonies, — that the 
ports of the United States were considerably 
nearer to these islands than the ports of our 
own provinces, — and that the supplying of our 
West-Indian settlements with American pro- 
duce, from the United States, must have, 
therefore, been a trade well organized and un- 



^0 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



derstood: whereas, upon the other hand, our 
remaining provinces being at a comparatively 
greater distance, and their produce conse- 
quently liable to a proportion ably higher 
freight, their trade with the West Indies, pre- 
vious to the late American war, was therefore 
limited, and, of course, less understood, either 
as to the preparation of lumber, or the proper 
assortment of cargoes in general, than in the 
United States ; and, having also been before 
that period in the habit of shipping their wheat 
to Great Britain, they even were not sufficiently 
provided with mills to manufacture that article 
into flour for the West-Indian market. This 
differeizce of freight in favour of the Americans 
tended considerably to discourage the trade 
from our own provinces, and operated greatly 
in encouraging the transportation of their pro- 
duce to the ports of the United States, instead 
of taking it direct, in British bottoms, to the 
king's sugar-colonies, or to any intermediate 
port in British America. 

Had a duty, equal to have balanced this 
difference in favour of America, and something 
over and above, to have constituted a premium 
or protecting duty in favour of the British colo- 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 91 



nists, it would have encouraged and increased 
the exportation of produce from our own colo- 
nies, and discouraged and diminished the 
exports from the United States, and at last 
enabled our own provinces to have completely 
supplied all the demands of our West-Indian 
settlements, for American produce. This duty, 
although it would have been but a mere trifle 
as to the price paid in the West Indies, yet it 
would have been of great importance compa- 
red with the freights from the British provinces, 
and its operation would have, no doubt, ulti- 
mately rendered us independent of the United 
States, in a very important respect. Had the 
above circumstances been attended to, and 
adequate measures been adopted and perseve- 
red in, our own provinces would, by the com- 
mencement of the late French war, have been 
capable of affording our West-Indian settle- 
ments all their supplies. From the interests of 
these provinces, however, being neglected and 
misunderstood, their whole exports, at the com- 
mencement of that war, did not altogether 
amount to a quantity sufficient to answer the 
demand of these islands ; and, moreover, from 
various impolitic measures operating against 



92 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

them, there was then even but a small proportion 
of what they did export sent thither; and, conse- 
quently, a large share of the supplies of these 
settlements continued still to be furnished from 
the United States. The inconveniencies, to 
which we were rendered liable by this depend- 
ence upon America, were also greatly increased 
by the want of proper convoys to protect our 
ships employed in this intercourse with the 
United States. 

This danger to which our ships were expo- 
sed was afterwards pleaded as an excuse for a 
further suspension of our navigation-laws, in 
opening the ports of our West-Indian colonies 
to American ships, as well as to their produce : 
and this suspension was managed in such a man- 
ner, as answered the purpose of the United States 
infinitely better than even its total repeal. 

From the inconveniencies suffered, by a 
want of adequate protection to our ships em- 
ployed between the United States and our 
West-Indian islands, at the commencement of 
the late French war, serious inconveniencies 
were felt in the West Indies for want of 
lumber, and the greatest distress for want of 
food ; — every article selling at the most enor- 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES^. 93 

mous prices, and the inhabitants threatened 
with actual famine, the governors of the re- 
spective islands, were under such distressing 
circumstances, compelled, as a dernier resort, 
to open the ports to the Americans, both to 
their produce and to their ships. 

Then glutted markets and a depression of 
prices ensued, and the ports again closed to 
the Americans ; and, then, of course, as the 
stock on hand became exhausted, prices again 
advanced, until at last it again became neces- 
sary to open the ports to the Americans, for a 
fresh supply ; thus producing a continued and 
rapid succession of extremes, which occa- 
sioned the most serious inconveniencies ; — in- 
conveniencies which often reduced our West- 
Indian colonists to the necessity of eating 
sour flour and half rotten provisions at the 
most exorbitant prices ; and at the same time 
almost excluded the produce of the British 
provinces from the West-Indian market. 

The comparatively greater distance at which 
the ports of the British provinces, than those 
of the United States, were from the West 
Indies ; and the ports of the British provinces 
being principally shut up by the frost, (during 



94 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

the winter season, are circumstances, which, 
although, in themselves, they would have had 
scarcely any perceptible effect in excluding 
the produce of the British provinces from the 
West- Indian market, yet, coupled with the 
rapid changes which that market was rendered 
liable to, it may be easily perceived, that they 
were calculated to produce that effect, and to 
continue to operate in this respect as long as 
the singular scramble, which the supplying of 
our West-Indian possessions exhibited, whilst 
the farce produced by this law and its sus- 
pension was kept in play. 

Whilst large stocks remained on hand, pri- 
ces were moderate ; but, as the super-abundant 
quantity became exhausted, the farther sup- 
plies being still dependent upon the same pre- 
carious means, the remainder became an ob- 
ject of speculation, thereby causing an imme- 
diate rise of prices. 

But if the Canadians heard of such scarcity 
and high prices as were thus produced, and 
accordingly despatched cargoes to meet them, 
their shipments were sure to meet the market 
in the very reverse state of what they had been 
informed ; such adventurers were sure to find 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 95 

every British island in the West Indies glutted, 
and produce selling perhaps at prices lower 
than those current at the ports where their 
shipments were made. They ultimately found 
that what might be termed a brisk demand 
and encouraging prices soon increased to that 
dearth and almost actual famine, which pro- 
duced the necessity for opening the ports to 
the Americans, who, from their contiguity with 
the West Indies, had an opportunity of glut- 
ting these ports with produce, considerably be- 
fore supplies could reach them from the British 
provinces ; and, therefore, learned, by expe- 
rience, that as long as the intercourse between 
our West- Indian colonies and the United States 
was permitted and continued upon the same 
footing as has been before described, it was 
impossible for them to derive any advantage 
from their sister colonies in the West-Indies, 
as a market for their produce. 

I have mentioned the rapid changes which 
the West-Indian market was rendered liable 
to, and the distance and liability of some of 
the ports of our provinces to be blocked up by 
the frost in winter, as two causes which con- 
tributed to the exclusion of the produce of 



96 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

these provinces from the West Indies. Had 
only one of these two causes existed, our 
continental colonists would have certainly come 
in for a share in furnishing the West-Indian 
market v/ith American produce. 

It may be argued, that our American provin* 
ces, on account of their distance, and of some of 
their ports being liable to be shut up at certain 
seasons of the year by the frost, are incapable 
of furnishing our West-Indian colonists with 
regular supplies. With regard to the distance, 
an addition of eight or ten days to the length of 
the passage is equal to the difference, and 
therefore, excepting under the circumstances 
produced by the alternate opening and shutting 
the market to the Americans, scarcely deserves 
to be called a disadvantage. 

As to the disadvantages which might arise 
from the circumstance of the ports being shut 
up by the frost, it may be observed, that 
some of them are no doubt shut op from 
two to five months : but, an additional stock 
laid in in the fall of the year would prevent 
every possible inconvenience, which could 
arise from this interruption, except in regard 
to a few articles of minor consideration. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 97 

With regard to flour ; as the supplies would 
principally depend upon Canada, so far the 
inhabitants of the West-Indies would require 
to lay in a small additional stock in the fall of 
the year, as the navigation of the St. Laurence 
is shut up between four and five months. This 
could be done without further inconvenience 
than the out-lay of money, and about half a 
dollar per barrel, for which it may be warranted 
to keep twelve months, instead of four or five. 

As part, however, might be obtained from 
the lower provinces, where the ports are not so 
long blockaded by the frost, three or four months 
stock on hand would be the largest quantity 
which would be requisite to provide against 
this inconvenience. 

Concerning lumber, no possible plea can 
be urged against its keeping; and, therefore, 
all the disadvantages which could arise to our 
West-Indian colonists, from their being confi- 
ned to these provinces, for their supplies of 
that article, would be also the laying in three 
or four months stock in the fall of the year. 

Fish and provisions would keep with the 
greatest safety; at least, if they were cured 
and packed in a manner suitable to the climate, 

H 



08 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

they could receive but little, if any, injury, 
from being kept for this length of time. 

Thus, it appears, that so far as the British 
provinces are capable of supplying our West- 
Indian settlements with flour, meal, bread, 
grain, &c. lumber, fish, and provisions, and the 
furnishing of such supplies confined to the 
resources of these provinces, no difficulties need 
be apprehended either from the distance or from 
the occasional suspension of the navigation 
during winter : and, indeed, upon that trade 
being encouraged to flow in this channel, no in- 
convenience could possibly be experienced. 

The quantity of wheat and flour, &c. hitherto 
annually exported from the British provinces, 
has been certainly short of what was suffi- 
cient for the supply of our settlements in the 
West Indies. This circumstance, although, 
for obvious reasons, no proof of their inade-r 
quacy, yet formed an additional excuse for the 
admission of United States produce into these 
settlements. 

The hostile spirit of the American govern- 
ment, with some other circumstances, have at 
length convinced us of the capability of our 
American provinces, of supplying not only our 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 99 

West-Indian colonies with lumber, but, also, 
the mother country. And, although nothing 
has yet taken place, at all calculated to in- 
crease the exportation of flour, (at least, how- 
ever far any circumstances may have occurred 
favourable to that end, others have operated 
proportion ably against it,) yet, it is no less 
clear, that in time of peace with the United 
States of America, flour may be obtained from 
our possessions upon the St. Laurence, in suf- 
ficient abundance for the supply of our West- 
Indian islands. 

The American embargo and the continental 
system have, ever since J 807, produced an ex- 
traordinary demand, in Canada, both for lum- 
ber and flour. 

This great demand for fish and lumber, of 
every description, has been completely answered. 
For the British American forests producing 
timber in abundance, and the population of 
these provinces being sufficiently numerous to 
bring it to market, (at least, with the assist- 
ance they had from the Americans,) the great- 
est demand for that article, therefore, which 
has ever occurred, in the British colonies, has 
been abundantly answered. The proportionate 

H 2 



100 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

demand for flour, however, has certainly not 
been supplied. For the circumstances upon 
which the increase of the exportation of that 
article, and of lumber, from Canada, dependy 
differ materially, both in their nature and faci- 
lity of operation. 

The American embargo and non-interconrse 
measures, it may be easily perceived, were 
much more calculated to prevent supplies of 
flour than of lumber being brought to the Ca- 
nadian ports. For, although the supplies of 
lumber, from the American side of the St. 
Laurence, were almost entirely cut off, yet 
there being an abundant quantity of that article 
upon the Canadian territory, it had only to be 
cut down and floated to market ; whereas, it 
plainly appears, that, on account of the Ameri- 
can prohibitory laws, the increase of the quan- 
tity of flour for exportation was dependent 
upon the extension and improvement of agri- 
culture : means of slow operation when com- 
pared with the felling of timber. For, ever 
since Mr. Jefferson's embargo, in 1807, the sup- 
plies from the Americans being almost entirely 
withheld, very little increase in the exportation 
of flour was to be expected ; whereas, for the 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 101 

reasons adduced, there was nothing to prevent 
an increase in the exports of lumber; at least, 
not until the commencement of actual hostilities. 
^ Although these prohibitory measures of 
v>. the American government had the effect of 
(^increasing the demand for flour, in the ports 
^of the St. Laurence, and producing higher 
' prices than those paid in the ports of the 
^United States; yet, for the reasons already men- 
tioned, they had also the effect of greatly pre- 
venting the Canadian exports of that article; 
and, therefore, although they created in the 
Americans, situated upon the Canadian fron- 
tiers, an inclination to prefer the ports of the 
St. Laurence, in the disposal of their property, 
yet these people could not benefit by the cir- 
cumstance, not having the power of a choice. 

Had not open hostilities actually commen- 
ced, however, and, at the same time, America 
had continued, by her prohibitory laws, to 
withhold supplies from our West-Indian 
islands, a considerable supply Df flour would 
have found its way to the Canadian ports, 
however vigilant the Americans might have 
been to prevent it, by enforcing the laws esta- 
blished for that purpose. The late prohibitory 



]02 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

laws of the United States have done a very 
essential service to the British American pro- 
vinces, in putting an end to the absurd practice 
of alternately shutting and opening the ports of 
our West-Indian islands to the Americans, a 
practice which it is obvious was unnecessary 
and highly impolitic; and, indeed, has proved 
extremely injurious to our shipping-interest, dis- 
couraging to our continental provinces, and 
hurtful to our West-Indian colonists: it is, there- 
fore, to be hoped, that that pernicious and ruin- 
ous licensing-system will not be adopted, to 
supply the place of the other absurdity. Agree- 
ably to what I have already observed, the Eng- 
lish government had it certainly in their power 
to have framed and enforced an act, which 
would have proved effectual in the encourage- 
ment of the exportation of produce from the 
British American provinces into our West-In- 
dian islands, and, at the same time, secured to 
the inhabitants of these islands regular and 
abundant supplies, without opening the ports 
of these settlements, either to the produce or 
the ships of America. 

This purpose might have been accomplish- 
ed, by permitting, upon certain conditions, the 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 103 



importation of such articles of American pro- 
duce into our West-Indian settlements, as the 
British provinces were then miable to furnish 
in sufficient quantities. 

For instance, had the British provinces not 
been all at once adequate to supply our West- 
Indian possessions with flour and lumber, then 
let these articles have been admitted into these 
settlements, liable to such a duty as would 
have encouraged the transportation of the flour, 
manufactured upon the United States side of 
the St. Laurence to the Canadian market, in- 
stead of the ports of the United States. And, 
as it cannot surely be urged, that we could not 
furnish ships to transport such temporary sup- 
plies as might have been thus wanted from the 
United States, let them have been importable 
only in British ships. 

Had such a measure been adopted, it would 
have immediately secured the carriage of the 
whole to our own ships, and in a few years 
would have encouraged such an influx of 
American produce to the ports of the St. Lau- 
rence, as would have enabled the British pro- 
vinces to supply our West-Indian possessions 
with every article of American produce of 



104 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

which they stood in need, (some trifling arti- 
cles excepted, which are not produced in these 
latitudes, such as rice, &c.) 

Such a measure, according to No. 6, in the 
Appendix, would have added 211,043 tons to 
the annual employment of our ships, being 
an amount of tonnage, upwards of one-Jifth of 
the whole which xve employ in foreign trade ; and 
would have added no less than ^1,477,301 to 
the annual earnings of our merchant-shipping. 

Indeed, such a system of policy would have 
brought the whole produce of that part of the 
United States, which lies along the Canadian 
frontiers, to the ports of the St. Laurence, and 
thereby enabled the Canadas to have furnished 
the mother-country, also, with large supplies of 
wheat and flour : but, as these affairs have hi- 
therto been regulated, the very produce of the 
Canadas has, in several instances, been carried 
to the ports of the United States; a melancholy 
proof of want of attention to our commercial 
and maritime affairs, and of the assiduity and 
attention of the American government to that 
important interest. The adequacy of our 
American provinces to the supply of our 
West-Indian settlements, with flour and lumber, 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 105 

as well as American produce in general, how- 
ever, being discussed more at large in another 
part of this work ; and being a subject which 
it is unnecessary to pursue further, as relating 
to that now under consideration, namely, the 
opening of the ports of our colonies to the 
United States, it may be dismissed for the pre- 
sent. 

It may be observed, from what has been ad- 
vanced upon this subject, that this relaxation of 
our navigation-laws, in respect to our West- 
Indian c4>lonies, has been a downright sacri- 
fice; because, upon the one hand, we had no 
equivalent for the concession, and, upon the 
other, there was no circumstance in existence 
which rendered such a measure necessary. 

This extraordinary and unprecedented pri- 
vilege, which has been so unjustly granted to 
the American — at the expense of our own — 
shipping-interest, in respect to the West Indies 
alone, amounts to no less than about 211,043 
tons of 40 cubic feet, as stated in No. 6, in the 
Appendix. 

To ascertain the amount of tonnage which 
this trade has added to the American shipping, 
it may be observed, that ships generally carry 



106 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

about a ton and an half measurement-goods per 
ton register : but, it must be observed, that as 
the greater part of the ships employed in this 
trade are small sharp vessels, being generally fast 
sailers, they cannot be consequently computed 
to carry more than about a ton measurement to 
the ton register : the register tonnage, annually 
cleared out of the American ports in this trade, 
therefore, cannot have been less than 211,043. 

The amount of the tonnage which the Ame- 
ricans have employed in their trade with our 
East-Indian colonies, could not be ^^orrectly 
ascertained. 

At a moderate calculation, however, we may 
conclude that this most gratuitous sacrifice of 
our shipping, by relaxing our navigation- 
laws, in respect to opening the ports of our 
colonies to the United States, has at least add- 
ed 300,000 tons to the employment of Ameri- 
can shipping: computing the employment 
which they had in their intercourse with our 
our colonies in the East-Indies, in America, in 
the Mediterranean, in Africa, &c. altogether, 
at only 88,957 tons. 

Our legislative proceedings, both in respect 
to the trade and intercourse between our West- 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 107 



Indian islands and the United States, and the 
opening of the ports of our East-Indian pos- 
sessions to American ships, are evidently so 
glaringly stamped with injustice and impolicy, 
both towards our American colonists and our 
ship-owners, as, it is to be hoped, will deter the 
legislature from again relaxing in favour of 
America, or ^ny other nation, our navigation- 
laws, which ought to be held sacred under 
every difficulty. 

Indeed, the minister, who would agaiii coun- 
tenance any treaty, which would permit the 
American or any other foreign flag, either to 
enter the ports of our East or West Indian, or 
any other of our colonies; or, admit the Ame- 
ricans to participate in the king's fisheries on 
the shores of British America or Newfound- 
land ; or would, from any pretended accidental 
necessity, (such as has been speciously held 
out in respect to the West Indies,) advise his 
Majesty to grant, by license, or otherwise, such 
a privilege, ought to be considered, not only as 
totally regardless of the interests of his country, 
but as actually concerting and encouraging 
measures for its ruin. 



108 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



OF THE ADMISSION OF THE PRODUCE OF THE 
UNITED STATES INTO THE UNITED KING- 
DOM, AT THE SAME RATE OF DUTIES AS 
THAT OF OUR OWN COLONIES. 

By virtue of the power vested in the privy 
council by the 23d Geo. III. cap. 39, the pro- 
duce and manufactures of the United States 
were, by his Majesty's proclamation, admitted 
into this country at the same rate of duties as 
was charged upon the produce of our own 
colonies, and continued to be admitted upon 
the same advantageous terms, until the expira- 
tion of the late commercial treaty with Ame- 
rica."^ Neither was the alien-duty charged in 
favour of our own ships, nor any certificate re- 



* Your Majesty, by the said order in council, has been 
pleased to permit, that (except fish-oil, blubber, whale-fins, 
and spermaceti) any goods, being unmanufactured, as well 
as pig-iron, bar-iron, pitch, tar, turpentine, resin, pot-ash, 
pearl-ash, indigo, masts, yards, and bowsprits, being the 
growth or production of any of the territories of the United 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 109 

quired, as usual, tbat the importations made in 
American ships were the produce and manufac- 
ture of the United States; these orders in 
council thereby admitting, that the ships natu- 
ralised the property ; and, consequently allow- 
ing this new republican flag to cover property 
from every sort of scrutiny as to its origin. 



States of America, may be imported directly from thence into 
any of the ports of this kingdom, upon payment of the same 
duties, as the like sorts of goods are or may be subject to, if 
imported from any British island or plantation in America, 

OBSERVATION. 

Your Majesty has thought fit to grant to the commerce of 
the United States, with respect to certain articles above enu- 
merated and described, (being those in which the commerce 
of the United States is principally carried on,) the same pre- 
ference as is granted to the commerce of the islands and 
plantations in America, remaining under your Majesty's do- 
minion : and, in many of these articles, the commerce of the 
said States derives great benefit from the prefei^ence thus 
given, to the detriment of the commerce of other foreign na- 
tions, as will be seen by the following table.* — Report of the 
Lords of the Committee of Council^ from Mr. Atchesons 
Collection of Reports, 

* The Tabl« here alluded to is omitted, being rendered anueeessary by 
No. 3; in the Appendix. 



110 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



These advantages, the Americans, by their 
threatenings and compulsory measures, obtain- 
ed with so little difficulty, that, instead of being 
grateful for these unparalleled privileges, they 
were only stimulated to make further demands, 
equally unreasonable and unprecedented ; 
such as a free trade to our colonies, &c. en- 
forcing these demands by the imposition of ex- 
orbitant duties against our commerce, non- 
importation-acts, and other hostile measures. 

This gross abuse, however, of our profuse 
liberality and unbounded concessions to them, 
had not the effect which they might have natu- 
rally been expected to produce, namely, a re- 
traction of every former concession that had in 
the least exceeded the limits, which our mari- 
time laws and transactions with other nations 
had set to our stipulations in all commercial 
arrangements with that country. 

Had this been the case, one of the most im- 
portant of these retractions would have been a 
charge of an equal amount of duties upon 
American produce, as was charged upon the 
produce of other foreign nations. But, no such 
effects were produced. Our government still 
continued their conceding system, endeavour- 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. Ill 

ing to purchase friendship by meanly submit- 
ting to the grossest insult and imposition. 

Fish-oil, blubber, whale-fins, and spermaceti, 
were afterwards only made exceptions to this 
general exemption of duties upon the produce 
of the United States: and, after having for 
several years exempted America from the 
alien-duty, when we did at last put her so far 
upon a footing with other foreign nations, as to 
subject her to an alien-duty, still it was only to 
the trifling amount of about one Jrftieth or 
sixtieth part of her excessive charge of this 
description against us. 

It appears, that the duties charged upon 
American and other foreign produce, previous 
to the expiration of our late commercial treaty 
with the United States, were no less in favour 
of America, even after she was subjected to the 
alien-duty, than \^s. 6d. per load upon pine or 
fir timber, 14^. Sd. upon oak, 43^. 4d. per ton 
upon ashes, and proportionably favourable 
to her upon all other articles, as appears by 
No. 3, in the Appendix. 

This difference in favour of American pro- 
duce, on the duties levied upon our importa- 
tions, was evidently a sacrifice both of our 



112 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



revenue and of our American provinces, and 
an unjustifiable partiality shewn to the United 
States in respect to other foreign countries. 
America gave us no advantage over other 
foreigners \^ What claim then had she to any 
preference from us in this respect? 



* Tonnage-duties, giving a pi^eference to the ships of the 
United States and of other nations over those of Great 
Britain. 

By a law made in Peiisylvania, a duty of As. 6d. per ton, 
for every voyage, was imposed upon the vessels of every na- 
tion with which congress had not made treaties of commerce. 
By a law made in Maryland, a duty of I*, per ton was im- 
posed on all foreign shipping, except British ; and a duty of 
5*. per ton upon British shipping. By a law passed in Vir- 
ginia, in 1788, a duty of 6s. per ton was imposed on British 
vessels, and 3*. per ton on all other foreign vessels. By a 
law made in North Carolina, a duty of 5*. per ton was im- 
posed on British vessels ; and a duty of 1*. per ton on all 
other vessels. 

Duties on imports, giving a preference to those of the 
United States and of other nations over those of Great 
Britain. 

By laws passed in the provinces of New Hampshire, Mas- 
sachusetts-Bay, and Rhode-Island, in 1785, a duty of 6d. 
currency, being equal to A^d. sterling, was imposed on every 
bushel of salt imported in ships owned, in whole or in part, 
by British subjects ; and, by laws passed in the states of 



i 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 113 

The injury of such partiality, both to our 
colonies in America and our shipping, is im- 
mense. The low duty charged upon American 
timber in particular has undoubtedly added an 
enormous proportion to the amount of the 
shipping of that country, and cTidently prevent- 
ed a proportionable increase in the amount of 
ours. Had the same duties been charged upon 
her timber, as were charged upon that from 
other foreign countries, the quantity which she 
could have imported would have been very 
small indeed ; and, considering the state of 
affairs upon the continent of Europe, such a 
measure must have proportionably encreased 
our importations of timber from our own pro- 
vinces; and, consequently, secured the car- 
riage of it to our own ships. For the 18,9. 6d. 
per load upon fir timber, and other duties so 



New York and Maryland, the cargoes of British ships are, in 
ever^' case, to pay double the duties imposed on those of 
other nations. In Virginia, a law was established, to com- 
mence in March, 1788, by which an additional duty was 
imposed on all merchandize imported in British ships. — i?p- 
port of the Lords of the Committee of Council, from Mr, 
Atcheson's Collection of Reports. 

I 



114 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



generously sacrificed to the Americans, would 
of course have been so much in diminution of 
that proportion of the price left to pay freight, 
&c.; and, consequently, given our ships, em- 
ployed in the carriage of timber from our own 
colonies, a proportionate advantage over Ame- 
rican ships similarly employed from the United 
States ; and thereby, at last, enabled us to have 
entirely shut up this source, whence Ame- 
rica derived so large a proportion of the en- 
crease and support of her shipping. 

British ships, from the immense expense at 
which they were navigated, — from their being 
by the American countervailing duties prohi- 
bited the privilege of carrying even almost any 
share of our exportations to that country, and 
having the benefit of only a mock countervail- 
ing duty in our importations, — were, therefore, 
virtually excluded from the carriage of Ameri- 
can produce imported into this country in ge- 
neral ; and our own provinces being capable of 
supplying us with some of the most bulky arti- 
cles of which these importations consist, parti- 
cularly timber, rendered the imposition of these 
duties still the more necessary. 

America may allege that th^ sa^ue duties 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES 115 

being charged upon her timber, as upon that 
from the Baltic, would altogether prohibit its 
importation into this country. Be this as it 
may, — this is a point with which we have no 
concern. Were we to take such a circum- 
stance into consideration, and to make allow- 
ance for it in regulating the amount of our 
duties, how far would such a rule lead us ? To 
admit this principle would be to admit a 
precedent of the greatest impolicy, and indeed 
of the most extravagant folly. 

Upon such a principle, the Emperor of 
China, had he timber for exportation, might 
shew us that it was only the high freight that 
prevented his timber from being exported to 
this country, and with propriety urge the prin- 
ciple we had admitted and adopted, as a plea 
for such a regulation in his favour, as would 
ensure the exportation of his timber to this 
country, as well as his teas. It would be but 
a silly argument, in opposition to such a plea, 
to plead that a sacrifice of 20^. per ton answer- 
ed the Americans purpose, whereas, he would 
require c£20 per ton: the loss to us, indeed, 
might differ materially, but the principle is ex- 
actly the same. 

I 2 



116 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

All that America can, in reason and justice, 
require of us, upon this score, is, to be put upon 
a footing with other nations, — a privilege which 
she has in very few instances extended to us, 
but upon many occasions singled us out, by the 
most marked insults and disadvantages.* 



* Duties on imports, giving a preference to those of other 
nations over those of Great Britain* 

By laws made in the provinces of New Hampshire, Mas- 
scchusetts-Bay, and Rhode-Island, a duty of 6s. sterling, per 
hundred weight, is laid on cordage of British manufacture, 
and only half that duty if it be of the manufacture of any 
other foreign nation. — By a law passed in the province of 
Maryland, a duty of 25. per cwt. was imposed on brown and 
clayed sugars imported from the British West-India islands ; 
and a duty of 1*. 6d. per cwt. on the like articles imported 
from the plantations of France, Spain, Holland, Denmark, 
and Sweden ; and a duty of Id. per pound on refined sugar 
imported from Great Britain; and a duty of Id. per pound 
on the like article imported from the dominions of France, 
Spain, Holland, Denmark, and Sweden.— -By a law passed in 
South Carolina, in 1784, higher duties were imposed on thff 
produce of the British West-India islands than were payable 
on the like produce of the West-India islands of other foreign 
nations ; and, in Georgia, similar acts were passed, for the 
same purposes. The committee believe, that the laws be- 
fore mentioned are by no means all that have been passed 
for the purposes before stated. The regulations made in 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONT£S, 117 

It is notorious, that, at this very raoment, 
staves imported into this country from the United 
States are only liable to one-third the amount 
of duty charged upon staves from other foreign 
countries, — even upon those imported from 
countries with which we are in the strictest 
amity.* 

By charging the same rate of duties upon 
the timber of all foreign countries, and regu- 
lating the amount of the duties as circum- 
stances and our own interest point out, we 



these respects, by the several legislatures, are so various, that 
it is hardly possible to obtain a complete account of them. 
The merchants of Glasgow estimate the tonnage-duty, im- 
posed in the period above mentioned, on British shipping 
throughout all the United States, to have been, on an aver- 
age, 2«. 3«?. more per ton than on American ships, and that 
this charge on a ship of 200 tons, amounts to o£'22 : 10 for 
each voyage ; and they estimate the duty, imposed during 
the said period, on goods imported in British ships through 
all the United States, to be, upon an average, 2 per cent, more 
than on the like goods imported in American ships, and that 
this charge on a cargo of the value of c£2,000 amounts to 
c£40. — Report of the Lords of the Committee of Council, 
from Mr. AtchesorCs Collection of Reports. 

* Fish, foreign staves, and lumber, are now excluded, by 
order of council, from the British We^t Indies. 



118 - IMPORTANCE OF THE 

might, in a very few years, secure the carriage 
of that article entirely to our own ships ; and 
also, the supplying of it to our own colonies. 

The advantages to be derived from the ac- 
quisition of this employment to our own ships 
would be immense. And it is our own fault if 
we do not secure the carriage of every load of 
timber which we import. 

For no foreign nation would ever think of 
complaining of the duties which might be im- 
posed for this purpose, provided they were 
equal in amount: — being a matter of mere 
domestic policy, and imposed agreeably to an 
inherent right, which we enjoy in common with 
other nations, of imposing what duties we 
choose upon foreign produce, no nation could 
or would ever complain of their amount. 

Neither the American, Russian, Prussian, 
Danish, Swedish, nor any other foreign go- 
vernments, consult our interest or inclinations 
in respect to the duties they impose upon such 
produce and manufactures as they import from 
this country ; then, certainly, neither are we, 
therefore, under any obligation to consult any 
of their interests or conveniencies in this re- 
spect : far less to adopt or continue measures 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 119 



which sacrifice our most important commercial 
interests to their advantage. 

It is no doubt to this sacrifice of our duties 
upon American produce, that America owes a 
very large portion of her shipping. The ton- 
nage which she annually cleared out for this 
country with timber alone, before the hostile 
measures she adopted towards us, was not 
less than 120,000 tons: being a downright 
sacrifice of a proportionate amount of our own 
shipping,— of our American provinces, — and, 
indeed, of our whole mercantile interest. 



OF THE UNREASONABLE ADVANTAGES ALLOWED 
TO AMERICAN SHIPS, IN THE COUNTERVAIL- 
ING DUTIES CHARGED BY THE BRITISH AND 
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENTS RESPEC- 
TIVELY. 

The difference, or extra duties, charged by 
the government of any particular country, upon 
the goods imported in foreign ships, compared 



120 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

with that imported in their own vessels, is an 
alien, or, countervailing, duty, intended only to 
affect the ships ; its object is neither the gene- 
ral policy of the importation of the goods 
which constitute its subject, nor the funds 
which it is to furnish ; but, for the express pur- 
pose of encouraging and securing the freight to 
its own shipping. 

A relative equality of this duty, therefore, as 
respects the relation in which nations stand to 
each other, is but just and reasonable. In- 
deed, no government, which attends to its own 
interests, will ever suffer an inequality in this 
respect to operate against them: but will 
charge, in favour of their own ships, equal to 
what is charged against them in every foreign 
country respectively; otherwise they are evi- 
dently guilty of conniving at the destruction of 
their own shipping-interest.* 



( 



* Your Majesty by the said orders in council, has allowed 
the goods and merchandize, being th€ growth, production, 
or manufacture, of the territories of the United States, 
though imported in ships belonging to the subjects of the 
United States, to be exempted from the alien-duty. 

OBSERVATION. 
The goods nnported in ships belonging to all other fpreioif 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 121 



The method, or data, by which the Britislv 
and American governments have levied their 



nations, are subject to the alien's duty ; and the government 
of this country has received frequent complaints from other 
foreign nations of the distinction thus made, to their preju- 
dice, in favour of the United States, (page 54.) 

As the security of the British dominions principally de- 
pends upon the greatness of your Majesty's naval power, it 
has ever been the policy of the British government to 
watch, with a jealous eye, every attempt which has been made 
by foreign nations to the detriment of its navigation : and, 
€ven in cases where the interests of commerce, and those of 
navigation, could not be wholly reconciled, the government 
of Great Britain has always given the preference to the inte- 
rests of navigation : and it has never yet submitted to the 
imposition of any tonnage-duties, by foreign nations, on Bri- 
tish ships trading to their ports, without proceeding imme- 
diately to retaliation. 

In the year 1593, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth^ 
the State of Venice, (which was then one of the first mari- 
time powers of Europe,) made a distinction to the disadvan- 
tage of English ships in the duties on merchandize imported 
into, or exported from, the Venetian territories ; Queen Eli- 
zabeth, in a charter she at that time gave to the Turkey 
Company, forbade, during the twelve years which the said 
charter was to continue, the importation, into England, of 
currants, or the wine of Candia, in Venetian ships, upon for- 
feiture of the said ships and their cargoes, unless the state of 
Venice should think fit to abolish the distinction before 
mentioned, to the disadvantage of the ships of England;— 



122 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

countervailing duties, for the protection of 
their shipping, has been a per centage upon the 

aiid, in the year 1660, when the government of France im- 
posed a duty of 50 sols per ton, payable in the ports of that 
kingdom, upon the shipping of all foreign nations, including 
therein the shipping of Great Britain, the legislature of this 
country, by the 12 Charles II. 2 chap. 18, immediately im- 
posed, by way of retaliation, a duty of 5«. per ton, on all 
vessels belonging to the subjects of France, which should 
trade to the ports of this kingdom, and enacted, that this 
duty should continue to be collected as long as the duty of 
50 sols per ton, or any part thereof, should be charged upon 
British ships trading to the ports of France, and three 
months longer. 

As a further inducement to the government of Great Bri- 
tain to pay due attention to the system of policy, which the 
congress of the United States appear now to have in view, the 
committee think it right to suggest, that, if the British legisla- 
ture acquiesce in the distinctions already made by the present 
congress without remonstrance, the congress of the United 
States may, in a future session, be encouraged to increase 
these distinctions, so as to make them, in the end, effectual to 
the purpose for which they were intended. The house of 
representatives, in the two last sessions of congress, have cer- 
tainly had such a measure in contemplation : in the last ses- 
sion they proceeded so far in it, that a resolution was passed, 
and a bill was twice read for that purpose ; the members 
returned from the northern states strongly supported this 
measure ; those of the southern states resisted it, as being 
contrary to their interests; the more moderate members, 
hoik of the senate and house of representatives, thought the 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 123 

other duties. For instance, we have been in 
the habit of making an extra charge, upon im- 
portations made in American ships, of ten per 
cent, upon our duties ; America also charged 
extra, upon importations made in British ships, 
about ten per cent, upon her duties. These 
data answered her purpose extremely well: for 
our importations are principally articles of 
great bulk, small value, and liable to low du- 
ties : whilst her importations are of great value 
in proportion to their bulk, and, being manufac- 
tured goods for the general consumption of the 
country, are a proper object of taxation, and 
are indeed liable to very heavy duties. 

Although her countervailing duties and ours, 
therefore, might be nearly equal as to per cent- 
age upon the other duties, yet in amount they 
differed widely in her favour ; and, conse- 
quently, answered the purposes for which they 
were intended. 

That a clear and accurate view of this im- 



time was not yet arrived when they might venture with safety 
to take a step of this importance, (page 125.) — Report of 
the Lords of the Committee of Council, from Mr, AtchesotCs 
Collection of Reports, 



124 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



portant subject may be had, I have, in No. 3, 
in the Appendix, given a statement of the 
bulkiest articles of w^hich oiir importations 
both from Europe and America consist ; exhi- 
biting the amount of the duties with vs^hich 
these articles are chargeable ; and also shew- 
ing, what the countervailing duty in favour of 
our own shipping amounts to per ton of 40 cubic 
feet, or, per ton weight, of such goods as 20 
cwt. of which would not amount to a ton mea- 
surement ; and have also, in No. 4, given a list 
of the principal articles of the manufactures, 
&c. which we have been in the habit of export- 
ing to the United States ; sliewing the amount 
of American duties with which they are charge- 
able; and the amount of the countervailing 
duty per ton, charged by the government of 
the United States for the protection and encou- 
ragement of their shipping. 

The ton of 40 cubic feet is the most common 
standard by which cargoes are computed, or 
frjeights reckoned ; and, indeed, the freight of 
all such goods, as, that the ton of 20 cwt. of 
which exceeds 40 cubic feet, is paid by this mea- 
surement, or, at least, (if paid by w eight or any 
other rule,) the amount or rate is proportioned 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 125 



to the measure, or bulk, of the goods; such as 
icotton, sugar, wine and other liquids, &c. I 
have, therefore, adopted this as the most pro- 
per measure, or standard, by which to estimate 
the tonnage, in any discussions concerning 
freight. 

By the statement No. 3, it will be found, 
that the countervailing duty per ton, which we 
charged in favour of our own ships, was 6s. 8d, 
upon cotton, and 15^. upon tobacco: but, upon 
lumber, which of all others, is the article of the 
most material consequence, being the most 
bulky, there is only O^d. to 1^. 7|^. per ton 
charged, to secure the carriage of this import- 
ant commodity to our own ships. By this 
statement, it appears that the average amount 
of the countervailing duty which we have been 
in the habit of charging, upon our importations 
of lumber from America, was about 18^. a ton; 
and, that the average of what we charged upon 
the principal articles of American produce 
which we import, was only about 22d. per ton. 
From the statement No. 4, it appears that, 
for the encouragement and protection of the 
American shipping, a countervailing duty upon 
the articles enumerated, from 4^. to ^30 per 



126 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

«^W— — « ■— — — — — I I I I III ^" "' 11" 

ton, averaging about ^3, was charged upon 
the goods imported in British ships. 

This document shews us, that the Atnerieaii 
government, instead of protecting and encou- 
raging their shipping-interest, by a countervail- 
ing duty, of only about the sixtieth part of 
the freight, secured that important interest 
more effectually, namely, by a countervailing 
duty of nearly the whole amount of the freight. 

It is also important to observe, that, in 1804, 
the American government raised the whole 
duties charged upon their imports from this 
country, and at the same time added some- 
thing more than ^ per cent, ad valorem, to their 
old countervailing duty ; being an addition of 
about 10^. per ton, averaging the value as in 
No. 4. 

It is likewise remarkable, that our govern- 
ment did not raise the duties charged upon 
American produce imported into this country 
until the year 1808; and it is moreover notori- 
ous, that, instead of the countervailing duty 
being then also raised, it was actually reduced ; 
" — reduced from an insignificant trifle to a 
mere shadow, — from about 18^. per ton upon 
lumber to 7|df, 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 127 

Thus we see that, after having for several 
years submitted to the most exorbitant addi- 
tional duties, charged by the United States in 
favour of her own ships, without having re- 
course to retaliation in any shape, we at last, 
for the protection of our shipping-interest, 
adopted measures which were but calculated 
to mock our injured ship-owners; for, what 
could be more insulting than to talk of protect- 
ing their interests by allowing them eighteen 
pence to balance an imposition of ^3 ! ! 

When we did at last charge the alien-duty 
upon our importations from the United States, 
we were not bound to lay it on according to 
any certain rule,— neither by a per centage 
upon the duties, nor by any other particular 
mode ; but, whatever the mode adopted might 
have been, the amount charged ought, as to 
the proportion which it bore to the freight, to 
have exactly corresponded with that charged 
by America : — in fact, it ought to have been 
^3 per ton instead of 1 8^. 

As this duty is specially laid on to the dis- 
advantage of foreign ships, for the interest and 
encouragement of the ships of the country into 
which the importations are made ; and, j^s 



128 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

-' I ' '.__ , II 

such distinctions have been acceded to both by 
us and the Americans, undoubtedly neither na- 
tion could object to tbe other's making a charge 
in favour of their own ships, equal to what the 
other charged in favour of theirs: the interest 
of the ships being the direct object of the tax. 
It is, therefore, unreasonable to suppose, 
that any certain per centage upon the duties 
could be considered an equitable mode of levy- 
ing this duty; and equally absurd to suppose, 
that either nation, whilst they had the least 
claim to common sense in support of their 
arguments, would object to the others charging 
this countervailing duty, even at the rate ot 
3,300 per cent, upon their other duties, provi- 
ded such a proportion were requisite to render 
the countervailing duties equally advantageous 
to their ships, as that charged by the other na- 
tion ; about 3,300 per cent, appears to have been 
the rate at which the British government, for the 
encouragement of American shipping, allowed 
her countervailing duty to exceed ours ! ! * 



* If it should be thought proper to subject the goods 
brought in American ships to the duties payable generally 
on goods brought in foreign ships, and also to equalize th^ 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. l29 

For various reasons the amount of duties, 
charged by the two countries upon their im- 
portations respectively, must vary most mate- 
rially, as to the proportion they bear to the 
tonnage of the goods upon which they are 
levied * and, therefore, an equal per centage 
upon these duties must produce, upon their 
respective shipping-interests, effects extremely 
different ;— effects, only calculated to encou- 



tonnage-duties, it will be a discouragement to American 
shipping, and an encouragement to British shipping, to the 
extent of the present difference of the duty ; and such mea- 
sures will not prevent the same quantity of American pro- 
duce being brought into this country, — more will be brought 
in British ships, — less in American ships. 

There is no security, that congress will not be induced 
to increase the duties on British and other foreign ships. It 
is probable that they will increase these duties as their ship- 
ping increase, and British capitals can be easily transi^rted 
to America for that purpose. Foreigners have no title to 
complain of what congress have done or may do in this re- 
spect; — theymay equalize if they think proper. Congress 
have, in this instancey acted with true political wisdom, and 
on sound principles of navigation-laws, and they will not be 
disposed to alter so wise a system. — Opinion of a Committee 
of the Merchants of Glasgow, submitted to the Committee of 
the Lords of Council, from Mr. Atchison's Collection of 
Reports. 

K 



130 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

rage and increase the American shipping, and 
in an equal ratio discourage and sacrifice ours ;— 
The Americans will, therefore, no doubt, ea- 
gerly embrace a principle so much calculated 
to promote their interests. 

To regulate this important duty, according 
to the strictest principles of equitable recipro- 
city, and agreeably to our own interest, we 
ought to ascertain, (according to the rule laid 
down in No. 4, in the Appendix,) the precise 
amount, per ton, of the duty charged by Ame- 
rica, and then charge what would amount to 
an equal proportion of the freight. 

It is, therefore, of the first importance, to 
ascertain the exact amount, per ton, imposed 
by the government of the United States. 

To acquire the necessary information upon 
this point, let the tonnage of the goods export- 
ed thither be ascertained, which might be 
done, either from the information of the ex- 
porters, as to the relative proportions which 
the value and tonnage of each article or species 
of goods, of which our exports consist, bear 
to each other, or, which would be a surer and a 
much less objectionable method, — by having 



i 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 131 



the tonnage, by which freights are paid, of all 
goods exported, entered at the custom-house. 

The amount of the American countervailing 
duty, per ton, being thus ascertained, we ought 
then to charge ours, either by the ton, or, as 
heretofore, by a per centage upon the duties, 
(but, with this great, important, and equitable, 
difference,) regulating that per centage so as to 
produce a proportion to the freight exactly 
corresponding with that charged by America, 
— no matter whether such per centage were 
ten or whether it were several thousand per 
cent, upon the other duties. 

It is to be hoped, that the various circum- 
stances concerning this important subject will 
be minutely investigated and carefully attended 
to in future. For, it is evident, that although 
we have hitherto, in our commercial treaties 
and other regulations, respecting our trade 
with America, stipulated and provided con- 
cerning countervailing duties, and have talked 
of laying this, that, and the other, per centage 
upon some other per centage, in addition to 
these countervailing duties, — all speciously 
pretended for the encouragement of our ship- 
ping — yet, nevertheless, we have, in the blind- 

k2 



133 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

est and most ignorant manner, been, in reality, 
bartering our ship-owners interests and legiti- 
mate privileges for a mere shadow } — been 
actually, by our legislative knowledge, expe- 
rience, and consummate skill, in financial and 
commercial affairs, securing our shipping-inte- 
rest, by a countervailing duty of ISd. per ton 
upon timber, which is one of the bulkiest arti- 
cles which we import, (being no less than about 
the sixtieth part of the freight,) and submitting 
to the American government's imposition of a 
countervailing duty of nearly the whole amount 
of the freight in favour of their shipping ; — thus,^ 
catching at the shadow whilst they enjoy the 
substance. 

Our countervailing duty was known to exist, 
or appeared only as an embellishment to an act 
of parliament, — by the prominent feature it forms 
in a compilation of our custom-house-duties, — 
or, by the arithmetical exercise it gives our cus- 
tom-house-clerks ;butythe American alien-duties 
were most feelingly proved to exist by their ope- 
ration ; and, indeed, so effectually did they ope- 
rate, that not a package of goods was ever shipped 
from this country in a British ship, whilst ai 
American vessel was to be found to receive it. 



SRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 133 

It is impossible, with any degree of acGuracy, 
to compute the amount of British shipping 
which our government have sacrificed by the 
enormous and incredible advantages allowed 
to America, over British ships, in respect to 
these countervailing duties, — ^£3 to 22f/.— 
a preference of 3,300 per cent.; and yet an 
equality of these charges is what the Ame- 
ricans, unreasonable as they were, would have 
never objected to: or, as a committee of the 
merchants of Glasgow observed upon the sub- 
ject, in a communication to a committee of the 
privy council, that '^ Foreigners," and of course 
we amongst others, " had no right to complain 
of what congress have charged, or may charge, 
in this respect, — they may equalize if they 
think proper. " Co7igress have, in this instance^ 
acted zvith true political xvisdom^ and on StOund 
principles of navigation laws.''^ 

Considering the attention which America 

has shewn to her shipping-interest, and hoW 

much she has scrutinized every par^ of our 

conduct, in all our commercial concerns, 

which in any way directly or indirectly affected 

t — - ' ' — - — _,-*— — -*'- 

^ See Note to page 129. 



J 34 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



her interests, — would she have allowed such a 
difference to have existed against her ships? 
Undoubtedly she would not! Her conduct, 
hitherto, is sufficient to convince us that she 
would have immediately met any extra charge 
of ours, in this respect, with a corresponduig 
amount of duties. 

No government, perhaps our own excepted, 
would have so long submitted, under similar 
circumstances, to such depredations upon the 
most valuable branch of our commercial esta- 
blishment. 

The amount of our shipping thus sacrificed 
must be very considerable. For the American 
ships having, by the wisdom of their govern- 
ment, all the shipments from this country se- 
cured to them, were thereby enabled to carry 
their own produce to Great Britaip at propor- 
tionably a cheaper rate. 

Considering this advantage enjoyed by Ame- 
rican ships, — that our shipping laboured under 
the disadvantage of the high price which they 
cost, — the heavy expense at which they were 
navigated,— -and unaided by an adequate alien- 
duty, it was no wonder that ours were almost 
entirely excluded from any participation, is 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 135 



either the export or import trade with Ame- 
rica. 

From the view taken of this important sub- 
ject it is obvious, that, as an inherent right of 
regulating the commercial intercourse betw een 
its own subjects and foreigners, every nation 
has also the right, upon the immutable princi- 
ple of equity and justice and the law's and 
customs of nations, as nniversally acknowled^- 
^edj to impose such coiintervailing duties as 
it may deem expedient, 

Consequently, no nation, which may be the 
object of such duties, has cause to complaiuy 
having it also in her power to counteract the 
duties imposed by any particular state by 
counterpoising them xvith others equally beneficial 
to its own shipping. 

The right, therefore, remains undisputed; 
and, with respect to the expediency of exer- 
cising it, it is obvious, that, to this country, 
whose imports exceeds its exports y the highfr the 
countervailing duties imposed by foreigners in 
favour of their own ships are, the more advanta^ 
geous, therefore, to British ships, considering that 
an equal charge in favour of ours would ope^ 
rate effectually in securing the carriage of our 



136 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



imports, as theirs would in the carriage of 
our exports, — we should, therefore, be the 
gainers, in proportion as our imports exceed- 
ed our exports. — -If such foreigners charged 
these duties so high as to secure the carriage 
of all their imports from us— so much the more 
in our favour! as, an equal amount of duty, 
which we should, as a matter of course, charge 
(were we not obstinately blind to our own in- 
terest as heretofore) would as certainly secure 
to us the carriage of the whole of our imports 
from them. 

This favourable opportunity has been afford- 
ed us by America — she charged a countervail- 
ing duty of such an amount, that, had we 
raised ours to an equal proportion of th^ 
freight, it would have secured to us the car- 
riage of every ton of goods which we imported 
from that country ;^ — she actually, thereby, 
offered us the carriage of her exports to this 
country, being about 150,000 tons per annum, 
in exchange for the carriage of our exports to 
her ports, being only, perhaps, about 30,000 
tons. Unfortunately, however, for British mer- 
chants and British ship-owners, our legislators, 
from some unaccountable motives, disregarded 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 137 

ou7^ shipping-interest, and, vyith their usual con-^ 
descension and generosity totvards Anierica, let 
her enjoy the carriage of both ! 



OF THE INEQUALITY OF THE AMOUNT OF THE 
DUTIES CHARGED UPON THE LUMBER WHICH 
>yE IMPORT IN GENERAI,. 

The object of the custom-house-duties 
charged upon the foreign produce which we 
import, is, in general, the fund§ which they 
furnish : with a few exceptions, at least, such 
as exorbitant duties intended as prohibitions; 
and countervailing duties, either for the protec- 
tion and encouragement of our shipping, or for 
the encouragement of our own colonies. 

An equality of the duties upon our imports 
from foreign countries (that is to say, from 
countries other than our own colonies) is, there- 
fore, both as far as relates to impartiality 
to the foreign nations furnishing the articles'^ 

* See Note to page 128. 



138 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

and our own interest in the revenue, in- 
dispensably necessary. — The only difference, 
which ought to be allowed to exist in these 
duties, should be only an additional charge 
upon the produce of countries not in amity 
with us, and in some trifling instances in re- 
spect to articles of which a variety of qualities 
ai'e indispensably necessary. 

No variety in the quality of any species of 
timber, however, is necessary ; the best quality 
of every particular kind being fit for every 
purpose to which an inferior sort could be ap- 
plied. As the cost of all foreign timber con- 
sists almost wholly in freight and other charges 
in transportation, and duties, a reduction of 
duty on account of quality must, therefore, be 
the most impolitic sacrifice of our revenue, 
and cannot be viewed in any other light than 
a premium paid to enable the people who are 
unfortunate enough to be the proprietors of a 
bad quality to vend their inferior stuff in this 
country, and also to keep up a successful com- 
petition with those who import the most supe- 
rior timber. 

We have, however, for some time past, been 
in the habit of charging different rates of duties 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES, 139 

upon the timber which we import from foreign 
countries. The distinctions have been princi- 
pally in favour of America and Denmark; the 
very two nations, which, of all others, have prac- 
tised the greatest deceit towards us, — two na- 
tions, who stand unparalleled in respect to the 
lengths they have lately gone to vilify and de- 
fame, in the most wicked and groundless man- 
ner, our character as a nation. 

The grounds upon which our American ad- 
vocates have founded their claims for this pri- 
vilege to the United States are, the inferiority 
of the timber* and its distance from our mar- 
ket, and consequent liability to high freight ; 
and the reason for charging a reduced rate of 
duties upon Norway timber was also its infe- 
rior quality, — reasons the most absurd, in 
favour of whatever nation they may have been 
urged ; but, with respect to America and Den- 



* By taking notice of the prices current at Liverpool, and 
other ports where American timber was regularly imported, 
it will be found that American timber, both oak and pine, 
(except pitch pine,) sold at considerably lower prices than 
either European or Quebec timber. 



140 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



mark in particiilaTj they are altogether unac- 
countable. 

These governments may ui^ge, as a plea to 
secure this privilege, that the same rate of 
duty being charged upon their timber, as upon 
Russian, Prussian, and other European tim- 
ber, would not leave a sufficient amount to pay 
freight, and would, therefore, amount to a pro- 
tiibition, — so it may, and so is many an honest, 
worthy Englishman absolutely prohibited from 
riding upon the king's high- way, from the ex- 
pense of a horse being beyond his reach.— It is 
not our business to take notice of the distance 
at which the foreign timber, which we import, is 
from our market, nor of what quality it is, WTth 
respect to the equality of the duties to which it 
is liable; considering that we can have an 
abundant supply, without making any abate- 
ment of duty upon the timber of any particular 
foreign country. 

Had a scarcity of supplies been either expe- 
rienced or reasonably apprehended, the duties 
in general might have been lowered ; but, as 
there has never been any want or even scarcity, 
except in some trifling instances, arising prin- 
cipally out of our destructive licensing system. 



BRITISH AMElilCAN COLONIES. 141 

there was no occasion for this expedient, in- 
deed it is clearly shewn, in the 3d chapter, that 
our AmericaQ colonies are more than sufficient 
to supply all our demands for timber of every 
description. This abatement of duties, there- 
fore, in favour of Denmm^k and America, being, 
to the former, 10^. per load, upon pine or fir, and, 
to the latter, 18^. Qd. upon fir, l^s.Qd. upon oak, 
and in the like proportion upon all other items 
of our timber-importations from the United 
States were mere sacrifices. 

With respect to the motive which induced 
this sacrifice, considering that our colonies- 
have always proved themselves capable of fur- 
nishing supplies infinitely beyond the greatest 
demand; and, that our ship-owners were suf- 
fering the greatest distress for want of employ- 
ment to their ships, it is obvious, that, as there 
was neither a scarcity of timber nor of ship- 
ping to carry it, this sacrifice must have pro- 
ceeded from mere generosity, — and as a bounty 
granted the Danes and Amerieans in support 
of their shipping, to enable them, with an 
inferior article, to maintain a successful compe- 
i'lon with our own colonists, in the supply of 



142 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

the British market with timber of the most 
superior quahty. 



OF THE ADMISSION OF ENEMIES PROPERTY BY 
LICENCE, AND THE 43d GEO. III. 

Respecting our trade by licence, or, Privy- 
Council-system of commerce ! it may be ob- 
served, that the British nation owes its com- 
mercial greatness and superiority over all other 
nations in this respect, to the peculiar pro- 
perties of the British constitution, which, by 
the safety it provides for private property, and 
by the protection and encouragement it holds 
out to industry, thereby affords commercial 
facilities and advantages not to be equalled in 
any other nation. 

The laws which respect commerce (not 
orders in council, or laws made for the con- 
venience of retailing commercial licenses, but 
the laws of the land, calculated to give per- 
manency and security to every species of mer- 
cantile industry) have been proved, by expe- 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 143 



rience, and treasured up in the constitution for 
the protection and encouragement of trade. 
These laws (the most important of which are 
those that respect our shipping) so amply pro- 
vide for the safety and security of commercial 
enterprise, as to give the fullest scope to the 
plans and schemes which the enterprising and 
ingenious may introduce into our mercantile 
system of economy and industry, notwith- 
standing that many years, in which peace and 
war may alternately prevail, may be necessary 
to bring such undertakings to maturity : 
whereas, the arbitrary and uncertain measures 
of the governments of other countries, with 
few exceptions at least, are such as render pri- 
vate property insecure, all mercantile pursuits 
imcertain, and the best-contrived commercial 
schemes generally unsuccessful. But the Bri- 
tish constitution scrupulously respecting and 
protecting private property from every imposi- 
tion, and so amply providing for the protection 
and encouragement of every branch of busi- 
ness, as to set all our manufacturing and com- 
mercial concerns in motion, supporting each 
other like the constituent parts of a well-con- 
structed piece of machinery, thereby enables 



144 Importance of the 

us, notwithstanding the prices of labour, and 
the ravy material, may be much higher than in 
most other foreign countries, successfully to 
come in competition, both with the foreign ma- 
nufactures and ship-owners. 

It is neither from a carelessness of the sove* 
reigus of the continent of Europe and their 
ministers concerning the thriving of theif' com- 
merce and manufactures, — nor because our go* 
vernment is more assiduous in their attention 
to these affairs, — neither from any natural dis- 
position to indolence or want of enterprise in 
the people uponth6 continent, — ^nor because we 
individually excel in industry and ingenuityj 
that we exceed every other nation in com- 
merce, — but, as I have already observed, be- 
cause our laws, which respect our mercantile 
pursuits, excel those of all other countries, 
being (at least until lately) laws of the land, 
enacted from the wise deliberation of a par- 
liament representing all classes and interests 
of the community, and rendered secure, by the 
peculiar properties of our constitution. 

Notwithstanding the advantages, however, 
which we have derived from adhering to a per- 
manent system of commercial laws, we have 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES, 145 

-iiiij " ' 

lately shewn a most unaccountable disposition 
to strike out of the good old path, chalked out 
by the wisdom of our ancestors, which has con- 
ducted us to a degree of national consequence 
and commercial prosperit}^ hitherto unparallel- 
ed, into the crooked bye-ways of the European 
governments, w hose arbitrary interference with 
a subject upon which they have had no com- 
parative experience, have long shackled and 
discouraged, and, in many instances, ruined 
their commerce. Yet itjs to speculations such 
as these, conceived in ignorance and hatched 
in power^ that our Privy Council has thought 
proper to sacrifice the navigation-laws of our 
ancestors, which may be justly termed the 
pillars which support our national renown, 
and the sheet-anchor of our commercial pros- 
perity. 

The act of the 23d Geo. III. cap. 39, dated 
the I2th of May, 1783, authorised his Majesty 
in council to suspend, as regarded America, 
every law existing for the regulation of our 
commercial concerns with foreign nations, and 
to adopt, in their stead, whatever measures, 
rules, or regulations, they might choose to adopt. 
This was, indeed, understood to have been but 



146 IMPORTANCE OP THE 

a temporary measure ; but it set an example, 
which has imfortuiiately been too much copied 
from ever since that period. 

Amongst the first proceedings of onr Privy 
Council, in the regulation of our commerce 
with the United States of America under this 
act, were his Majesty's orders in council, of the 
14th of May and 6th of June, 1783, admitting 
American produce and manufactures into this 
country, at the same rate of dutiet^ as was 
charged upon the produce and manufactures 
of our colonies. According to these procla- 
mations, no countervailing duty was charged 
in favour of our own ships, nor was any cer- 
tificate required, as usual, that the goods were 
the produce and manufactures of the United 
States, 

Thus did our legislature, by this act of the 
12th of Mayy 1783, at once set aside and render 
nugatory (as far as regarded the United States) 
those very laws which had not only reared, but 
were so essential to the protection of our ship- 
ping and commerce, — putting the regulation of 
all our commercial concerns with that country 
into the power of the Privy Council, who, it 
will be observed, lost no time in exercising 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 147 

these powers ; for, only two days after they 
Were vested with this dangerous authority, they 
actually sacrificed the great bulwark of our ship- 
ping, colonial, and commercial, interest to the 
United States. To satisfy this new^ government, 
Our ministers readily trampled under foot those 
laws, of which the most powerful nations upon 
the continent of Europe never could extort from 
their predecessors the smallest relaxation.* — 
They without hesitation franked the Ame- 
ricans the duties charged upon other foreign 
produce,— ^exempted their ships from counter- 
vailing duty, and dispensed with a certificate 
of the origin of the goods imported in their 
ships :— thus, is our Privy Council to be found, 
at once robbing our revenue, discouraging 
and disregarding our colonies, by shutting 
up the valuable sources of wealth which 
they held out,~~inj uring our commerce, and 
ruining our shipping, — and, moreover, ad- 
mitting that very principle which Buona- 
parte's insisting upon, has been the principal 
cause of the most expensive war in which we 
have ever been engaged, and the most destructive 

* See note, p. 115. 

l2 



148 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

which has ever raged upon the continent of 
Europe ; — namely, that free ships make free 
goods, that the ships naturalize the property ;— 
a principle equally repugnant to common s€nse 
and sound reason, as it is hostile to the inte- 
rests and safety of this country. 

In the year 1807, there was also another 
impolitic and unnecessary surrender of our 
maritime laws into the hands of our Privy 
Council, in respect to the opening of the ports 
of our West Indian colonies to foreigners, 
called the American Intercourse Bill. 

This bill authorised the King and his suc- 
cJessors, with the advice of the Privy Council, 
to suspend, during the present or any future 
war, all the provisions of the Act of Navigation 
in the British settlements in the West Indies and 
South America, both as to exports and imports. 

This measure was forced upon the shipping 
and commercial interests of this country in 
the most arbitrary manner. Instead of evi- 
dence being examined, in order to have ob- 
tained all necessary information upon a subject 
of such immense importance, the great body 
of ship-owners were even, upon solicitation^, 
refused an opportunity of defending them- 
selves against this most capricious and violeut 



feHlTISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 149 



inroad made upon interests, whicli constitute 
the main-spring of our commerce.* An act 
which was to give permanency and security to 
an absurd practice which had akeady sacriticed 
upwards of 120,000 tons of our shipping, — 
equal to three times the amount of all the ton- 
nage which we annually clear out for the whole 
ports of our East Indian possessions, — was 
passed with much less hesitation, less caution 
or consideration, than would have probably 
been bestowed upon an act for the regulation 
of the concerns of a turnpike or theatre. 

It has been clearly shewn, in the beginning 
of this chapter, that the relaxation of our 
navigation-laws, in opening the ports of our 
West-India settlements to American ships has 

* The various classes of petitioners against the bill, with 
a degree of moderation highly commendable at all times, 
but especially under the present critical and alarming situ- 
ation of the navigation and trade of the empire, urged the 
necessity of an inquiry on the subject before a committee ; 
but all these entreaties in that respect were unavailing, and 
the promoters of that ruinous measure denied to them that, 
which had hitherto, in all other branches of trade, been 
considered a matter of course, if not of right, — namely, the 
appointment of a committee to inquire into the nature and 
true merits of these respective cases. — Mr, Acheson's Intro- 
du&tion to his Collection of Reports, 



150 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

been evidently a most unnecessary sacrifice of 
our own shipping-interest. For, it is obyious^, 
that had the necessary information been ob- 
tained, it would have been found, that if the 
produce of the United States could not have 
been dispensed with, in the supplying of ouf 
West-Indian colonies, the £idmission of the 
produce would have, at any rate, been the full 
extent to which any relaxation of our naviga- 
tion-laws would have been necessary in this 
respect ; for, most assuredly, their ships might 
have been spared without the most distant risk 
pf inconvenience. 

Another, and upon general principles, the 
greatest source of mischief opened to us by the 
admission of enemies property, arises from 
the unlimited amount and incalculable irregu- 
larities as to the quantity of enemies produc^. 
imported by virtue pf the act of the 43d Geo, III. 
cap. 153, which is a canker-worm lodged by our 
legislature in the great body of our commercial, 
shipping, and colonial interests, wasting its 
very vitals, and, if not removed, will, in the 
end, if war continue, ultimately ruin it.* 

* That in the confident and general expectation that the 
North Americans would not be permitted to carry on theix 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 151 

Ey this act the produce and manufactui'es of 
the countries with whom we may be at war 



export-trade during their war against this country, consi- 
derable shipments of manufactured goods have already taken 
place ; and others to a much greater exteijt are aow pre- 
paring for Brazil and other places, for tlie sole purpose of 
having cotton-wool in return, which intended export of ma- 
nufactured goods will, however, now receive a severe check, 
by the knowledge of the afore-nientioned act of parlia- 
ment, permitting the import of cotton-wool from the United 
States, by neutral vessels. 

That many of our manufacturing people will conseqifently 
be thrown out of employ, and many of our commercial men 
meet with severe losses. 

That much of our shipping, which would otherwise be 
beneficially employed in the export of our manufactures and 
the bringing home of considerable quantities of cotton- 
wool from the Brazils^ and from the East and West Indies, 
will now remain unemployed ; the effects of which are al- 
ready felt to a very considerable extent, by the fall in price 
of freight for British shipping to and from the Brazils. 

That it is humbly submitted to be sound policy and con- 
sequently to be highly expedient, that the natives and resi- 
dents of our own colonies, together with those of our allies, 
who constantly take from us our manufactured goods in 
payment of their produce, should have the exclusive privi- 
lege of supplying us with the raw material, in preference 
to those who prohibit and interdict our commerce and ma- 
nufactures. 

That if North America be permitted to carry on her ex- 
port-trade during the war, by neutrals, s^ie will, by such 



152 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

are admitted into Great Britain, direct from 
enemies ports, in neutral ships, and liable 
only to the same rate of duties as they were 
chargeable with in time of peace. 

For some few articles of indispensable ne- 
cessity, we may be rendered dependent upon 
pur enemies for supplies. In such cases, 
however, care ought to be taken to ascertain 
whether or not we could obtain a sufficient 
supply, by confining the importation to our own 
ships, and measures adopted accordingly. 

Every species of enemies produce, of which 
we could obtain sufficient quantities from our 
own colonies and friendly nations, ought 
certainly to be prohibited, as it was by the 
laws which existed previous to the passing ot 
this act. But, as to such articles as could not 
altogether be dispensed with, whilst, at the 
same time, an adequate supply could be ob- 



means, have the exclusive ^dyantag^ of supplymg, with her 
cotton-wool and other articles, all the European markets, 
where the ports are not blockaded ; to the obvious disad- 
vantage of our manufactures, merchants, and ship-owners^ 
who would otherwise have the supplying of those markets 
from hence with our manufactured goods. — Mr. Lyne's LetteT^. 
to Lord Casthreagh, 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES, 153 

tained from neutral ports, then let us limit the 
importation of these to our own ships ; and of 
such goods as we could not dispense with, nor 
obtain the necessary quantity from neutral 
ports ; iu such cases only this act could be ju^ 
diciously had recourse to. 

Timber, for example, is an article of such 
indispensable necessity, that, were we reduced 
to a dependence upon our enemies for our sup- 
plies of it, considering its great bulk and com- 
paratively small value, we should certainly find 
ourselves under the necessity of admitting it 
(direct from the ports of our enemies, in neu^ 
tral ships, and, failing them, even in those of 
our enemies, 

Instead, however, of being under or even 
liable to this necessity, of late years, our own 
colonies, even without the least aid from any 
foreign country whatever, are capable of fur- 
nishing us with the most abundant supplies. 

Cotton, as a raw material of the very first 
importance to our manufactures, is also an ar- 
ticle of indispensable necessity. Were we 
therefore rendered wholly dependent upon our 
enemies for this important article, we should, 
pp doubt, be obliged to secure supplies, either 



154 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

from neutral ports by our own ships, or, ac- 
cording' to circumstances, even to admit im- 
portations, under this act, by neutral ships, 
direct from enemies ports. 

Under existing circumstances, however, not- 
withstanding that cotton has become an article 
of the very first consequence to our manufaC'- 
tures, this act is altogether unnecessary for the 
encouragement of its importation. 

Our own East and West Indian colonies, 
and the countries in amity with ns, such as th<^ 
Brazils, &c. are capable of amply satisfying 
all our demands ; at any rate, with such cotton 
of the United States as could be obtained from 
the ports of neutrals, taken as prizes, &c. they 
would afford the most abundant supplies.'^ 



* The unfortunate planters in the late Dutch and British 
colonies, deprived of that choice of market which the fo- 
reiojn planters enjoy, are compelled to send their cottons to 
this country ; their supplies, whatever they may cost, must 
be drawn from hence : their poverty puts it out of their 
power to hold back their crops, however much at times it 
might be for their interest to do so, and though now loaded 
with additional freight and insurance consequent upon the 
American war, they pay the same duty here with the neutral 
foreigner, who is exempted from all these consequences,* 
tberefore, from them, thus depressed and broken dowrij 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 155 

i^pi^pi^^^^^ii^^^^^^^^i^^^^^u^Plifi^BP^^^^ i ii iii .i iii i i ii n ■ii w ii^ 

The present importation of cotton from the 
United States, and the present and late importar 
tions of timber from enemies countries, are, 
therefore, and have been, unnecessary; they are, 
indeed, measures of great hardship and iur- 
justice towards our owp colonists and shipr 
owners, and impolitic and ungenerous towards 
our antient and faithful allies, the Portuguese. 

Hemp is likewise an article of imperious ncr 
cessity, for purposes of the first importance. 
For our supplies of this article we have been 



thrown on the mercy of their country, yet treated worse 
than straiigers, no phange of measures are to he appre:^ 
bended. 

I have, my Lord, next to contemplate the probable results 
that are to be expected, if the import of American cotton;s 
is restricted to British ships from neutral ports. The adop- 
tion of this measure would be returning to the system of q\f.v 
navigation-laws, and the performance of an act of justice 
to the British ship-owners. This system, I will venture to 
assert, ought never to be departed from, but under circum- 
stances of the most urgent pressure and necessity, such as, 
in the present case, I humbly contend do not exist. Ouf" 
naval greatness and cpmmercial consequence are admitted to 
l^e closely connected, if not dependent upon our adherence 
to its principles, and that they cannot be departed from, 
without feeding the resources of the enemy, or the neutral, at 
o;ir expense.— M?\ Gladstone's Lette?^ to the Board of Trade, 



156 IMPORTANCE OP THE 



hitherto principally dependent upon foreigners ; 
and, considering that but few countries pro- 
duce it for exportation, and that, from the 
peculiarities of the situation of those countries 
from whence it can only be obtained, when 
we are at war with them, our supplies are 
generally not to be procured from neutral 
ports ; and, therefore, this act might, at cer- 
tain times, be very properly put in operation 
for the admission of this important commodity, 
in neutral ships, direct from enemies ports. 

The same mode of reasoning applies to every 
item of which our imports consist, viz, either 
as adduced with respect to timber, cotton^ 
or hemp ; the whole ought, therefore, to be 
classed accordingly. 

In the first place, for example, all articles, 
(the produce of an enemy's country,) being 
articles of which we could obtain a sufficient 
supply from our own colonies and covmtries 
in amity with us, ought, undoubtedly, ac- 
cording to the above observations respecting 
timber, and agreeably to our old maritime 
laws, to be prohibited, except imported in 
our own ships, and warehoused, for expor- 
tation. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 157 

In the second place, all articles, (thepvoduce 
of enemies countries,) being articles of which 
"sve could not obtain sufficient supplies from 
our own colonies and countries in amity with 
us, but of which a sufficiency could be procured 
by only admitting such articles of enemies 
produce from neutral ports, according to the 
above observations respecting cotton, ought to 
be admitted only in British ships : — And, 

In the third place, all articles, (the produce 
of enemies countries,) being articles of which 
we could not obtain adequate supplies from 
our own colonies, — countries in amity with 
us, nor even from neutral ports, according to 
the above observations respecting hemp, ought, 
no doubt, during the existence of such circum- 
stances, to be admitted from enemies ports in 
neutral ships. 

Had every item of which our importations 
consisted been judiciously classed under one or 
other of these three cases, and our importations 
regulated accordingly, our colonies would have 
been now in a more thriving state, — our shipping 
in a more flourishing condition, — and our whole 
commercial and manufacturing concerns in- 
finitely less liable to those glaring irregularities 



iM IMPORTANCE OP THE 

which they have of late experienced, — irregu- 
larities which have, to ari alarming extent, 
converted oni* merchants into adventurers, 
and our rnariners irito smugglers, under the 
patronage and direction of a British Privy 
Council I /* 

For the sake of one or two articles, how-* 
ever, this sweeping act has been adopted, le- 
velling all the privileges and advantages which 
our colonies^ and the nations in amity with us, 
have an undoubted right to enjoy; placing 
them, in fact, upon a footing with our most 
inveterate enemies. 

The injury which our North- American pro- 
l4^ces-^and the greatest of all the many in* 
juries which our shipping interest have sus- 
tained from the importations made tindef this^ 
act has been in the importation of timber :-^for 
our shipping has been injured by being de- 
prived of the carriage of it, which would have 



* The connivance of onr legal authorities at otir owfi and 
the ships of foreign nations, trading to our ports by licence 
tinder false colours, and the consequent perjury inseparable 
from such practices, proves this assertion to a demonstration. 



feKlTlSH AMERICAN COLONIES 169 



been secured to them if brouglit from our own 
colonies ; and our American colonies have 
been injured both by the irregularity and in- 
calculable amount of the quantity introduced^ 
as well as in the admission of it upon any 
terms ; these provinces being capable (as I 
have clearly shewn in the next chapter) of 
supplying all our demands for that article. 

It may not be improper here to remark, that 
the scarcity of specie has been attributed to 
our licensing system, merely for the purpose 
of shewing, that, although this scarcity had 
not existed the ruinous tendency of this perni- 
cious mode of carrying on our commerce, 
might have been discovered; and, therefore, 
that, were an abundant supply of the precious 
metal again to supply the place of this scar- 
city, or, in other words, were Bank-of-Eng- 
land notes again readily convertible into spe- 
cie, it would afford no proof that our li- 
cense-trade was profitable to the country' 
and according to the principles- of sound po- 
licy. 

The scarcity of specie, felt by government, pro- 
ceeds principally from the immense expenditure 
they have been led into for the very salvation of 



160 IMPOltTANCE OF THE 

the country ; having been left alone to defend 
our own independence, and the antient free- 
dom of Europe^ against the most powerful 
enemy that ever assailed this or any other 
country^ 

From this vast and necessary expenditure, 
therefore, they have experienced, that nations^ 
like individuals, must necessarily find money 
scarce in proportion as their means of pur- 
chasing it are limited ; — that, when they are 
not in possession of real funds, their extraor- 
dinary anticipations must produce inconve- 
nience, and be made at considerable disadvan- 
tages, which must be the case with respect to 
large sums borrowed for the purpose of sending 
abroad. 

Had the revenue of the country been even near- 
ly sufficient to meet the public expenditure, the 
present scarcity of specie would not have been 
felt ; for the profits upon our commerce would 
have more than enabled them to have made all 
the exports of bullion necessary for their fo- 
reign expenditure, without producing any in^ 
convenience. But, considering the enormous 
sums that government have been imperiously 
called upon to borrow, for the very salvation 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 161 

of the country ; and, particularly, considering* 
the grfeat proportion which our foreign expen- 
diture bears to the whole, the profits of our 
commerce were unequal to balance such an ex- 
hausting exportation of bullion, so necessarily 
made, without producing such inconveniences 
as we have felt. 

These speculative projectwS of our Privy 
Council, (I mean the licensing system car- 
ried on under the 43d Geo. III. cap. 153,) 
abstractedly consielered, are certainly not cal- 
culated to produce a scarcity of specie : for, 
had these adventurous speculations been, upon 
the whole, profitable to the country, instead of 
draining us of our specie, they would, on the 
contrary, have even contributed to our ability 
to ^end specie abroad. This new method of 
carrying on our trade with foreign parts, how- 
ever, has been extremely ruinous, and, conse- 
quently, a drain of specie from this country 
has been one of the many ruinous eflfects which 
it has produced. 

To go fully into a discussion concerning our 
licence-trade would of itself form a work of 
great length : it is not my intention, however, 
neither is it here necessary, to go into particu- 



162 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

lars, further than the few general observations 
which I have made concerning its effects npon 
our American provinces, and the consequent 
injury which our shipping has sustained. 

It may be further observed, however, that 
orders of council may very properly be had 
recourse to in cases of great and sudden emer- 
gency. For example, in the instance of those 
retaliatory measures wisely adopted to meet 
Buonaparte's Milan decrees, and to thwart the 
projects craftily contrived by him, and con- 
nived at by the United States, for onr de- 
struction : but, in the above instances, orders 
in council were introduced to suspend and 
controul those wise and salutary laws of onr 
ancestors, calculated to regulate all our mer- 
cantile transactions with America, and to have 
provided amply for every contingency which 
could have arisen out of such transactions. 
And, if any new case should have occurred in 
the common course of business, it ought to 
have been the subject of legislative investiga- 
tion, and not disposed of in a summary way 
by the executive branch of our government. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 163 



OF THE HIGH PRICE OF OUR SHIPS AND THE 
GREAT EXPENSE AT WHICH THEY ARE NA- 
VIGATED, COMPARED WITH THE FOREIGN 
SHIPS WITH WHICH THEY HAVE TO COME IN 
COMPETITION. 

With respect to the comparative difference 
of expense at which our ships and those of 
America were navigated, previous to the late 
interruptions which have taken place in our 
commercial intercourse with that country. 
No. iy in the Appendix, is an estimate which 
shews a disadvantage against us, in this re- 
spect, of no less than 28^. per ton, upon a six 
months vovao:e. 

Possibly in this estimate the exact value and 
expense may not be correctly ascertained. It 
is, however, notorious to every one who is ac- 
quainted with these affairs, that foreign ships 
are and have been, for some time past, navi- 
gated at considerably smaller expense than 
ours ; and, at the same time, it is more pro- 
bable that the difference is rather under than 
over-rated. 

M 2 



164 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



The high price of our ships, and the great 
expense at which they are navigated, are cir- 
cumstances which, in respect to our coasting 
and colonial trade, are no injury to our ship- 
owner,— in this respect they only keep pace 
with the price of labour, and the prices of 
things in general. 

But this great expense, as far as it respects our 
trade with foreign countries, being combined with 
"various other circumstances, is to our shipping- 
interest ruinous in the extreme : — the ports of 
our colonies opened to the Americans ; — the 
partiality shewn to foreigners, in respect to 
the duties charged upon timber; — the enor- 
mous advantages allowed the Americans in 
countervailing duties, and our licensing sys- 
tem ; — these, with the high price of our ships, 
are calculated to sweep our foreign shipping 
from the ocean. 

Supposing the maintenance of our labouring 
class of society cost five times more than 
the maintenance of the like class amongst 
the Russians, yet, if the Englishmen's wages 
are commensurate with the high price of their 
living) the disparity of prices does not render 
ihem less comfortably situated, compared with 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 165 

the Russians. Bat how would such English- 
«ien be circumstanced, were myriads of Rus- 
sians to come into this country, and come in 
competition with them for wages; the Russians 
enjoying, at the same time, the unreasonable 
advantage of having their subsistence furnished 
to them at the same low rate they paid for it in 
their native country? There is no doubt wages 
would be reduced, and the Englishmen, in the 
midst of plenty, might perish foi* want of bread. 
Yet this case and that of our shipping-interest 
are so exactly parallel, that, as certainly as our 
labouring class would suffer under such cir-" 
cumstances, in precisely the same proportion 
is our shipping as unreasonably and unjustly 
suffering, and will continue to suffer as long as 
the cause which has been above-assigned re- 
mains unremoved, or at least until its baneful 
effects are rendered less injurious, by a careful 
attention to other circumstances. 

The difference of the value in the ships, 
of the sailors wages, of the price of provisions, 
of the amount of insurance, &c. and, in fact, 
of every item composing the expense of navi- 
gating the ships of the respective countries 
ought to be taken into consideration, in 



166 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

- '■ • "'■ „„.„.„ „ ■--. ' -^-^-^■•>" 

laying on the duties upon all importations 
from foreign countries ; and, if the difference 
should then appear against us, as in No. 5, an ad- 
ditional duty, precisely equal to that difference, 
should be charged upon all importations made 
in foreign ships ; and then, over and above that 
difference, a countervailing duty in favour of 
our own shipping. 

Had this equitableprinciplebeen declared and 
acted upon in our late commercial intercourse 
with the United States, the additional duty upon 
the produce of that country, imported in Ame- 
rican ships, over and above that charged upon 
what was imported in our own vessels, instead 
of being J^. 7{^ per ton upon tin,]berj would have 
been, in the first place, 28^. (see No. 5.) and, in 
next place, a countervailing duty, equal to 
•what the Americans charged, which, accord- 
ing to No. 4, in the Appendix, »was J^3 : 10, 
being, together, £4: IS per ton, instead of 
the pitiful sum of 1.9. 7 1<^. / 

This rule, for regulating the duties for the 
protection of our shipping-interest, equally ap- 
plies to all foreign countries as well as to Ame- 
rica ; and our shipping must actually either still 
continue to suffer in every competition, or that 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 107 

disadvantage must be attended to and, either 
directly or indirectly, counterpoised. 

Possibly some difficulty might be expe- 
rienced in charging a direct extra tax upon 
importations made in foreign vessels, to balance 
the high price of our ships, by the opposition 
of the goverimients of foreign countries, as it 
is very unlikely that they Vtould have occasion 
to claim from us any such privilege, and may, 
therefore, be the less inclined to acknowledge 
the principle, however just in itself.' 

If such obstacles should prove insurmount- 
able, which I admit they might, perhaps we 
ought, therefore, to be upon the alert to re- 
move all other disabilities, particularly those 
above-mentioned; in the doing of which no 
foreign governments w ould have any right to 
interfere. 

From the undue advantages allowed the 
Americans, as appears from this view taken 
of our transactions with that government, par- 
ticularly in the relajcation of our navigation- 
laws in favour of the United States, by opening 
the ports of our colonies to their ships; — in the 
admission of their produce into the united king- 
dam, at the same rate of duties as that of our 



168 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

own colonies; — in the advantages allowed their 
ships in the countervailing duties charged bif 
the respective governments, it is evident we have 
been at once guilty of an improper partiality 
towards them as regards other foreign nations, 
and at the same time of injustice to our owji 
colonists ; and, also, of actually countenancing 
a system which might ultimately tend to thf^ 
ruin of our own shipping. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 169 



CHAP. IV. 



OF Tip EXTENSIVE, VALUABLE, AND IMPRO- 
VABLE RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES POS- 
SESSED BY OUR AMERICAN PROVINCES, AS 
3RESPECTS OUR SIJIPPING AND COMMERCIAL 
INTERESTS, 



Regarding the important resources of the 
British North- American provinces, it may not 
be improper to make a few observations con- 
cerning the qualities of the lumber exported 
from these colonies, the carriage of that article 
being, of all others, of the greatest importance 
to our shipping. 

Oak TIMBER. — This article is only exported 
from the Canadas ; there being none produced 
in the lower provinces fit for exportation. 



170 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

Quebec Oak*' consists of two kinds, which 
are white and red ; the white is only export^ 
ed, the red not being considered merchantable. 

The merchantable size is 1 2 inches and up- 
wards on the side ; and 20 feet long, and up- 
wards. There is not much brought to market 
under 12 inches ; the general size is from 13 to 
16 inches square, and from 30 to 40 feet long. 
In some few instances, however, a few pieces may 
be found to square even from 16 to 30 inches ; 
and some sticks, perphaps, to run the length of 
60 feet. 

The quality of Quebec white oak is con- 
sidered superior to any which we import 
from any other part of America, or even from 
Europe. This may be proved by inspecting 
the prices current at those ports, wherein all 
the variety of qualities we import are to be 
found. 

Before oak can be exported from Canada, 
it must be inspected by a person, appointed by 
government, for that purpose, and stamped as 



* Canadian oak, from whatever part of the St. Lawrence 
it is shipped, is generally termed Quebec oak, » 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 171 

merchantable. That which is rejected as un- 
merchantable is not allowed to be exported. 

The faults for which it is considered un- 
merchantable are, its being red oak, under 20 
feet long, — under 12 inches upon the side, — 
having unsound knots, — being crooked or ill- 
squared, — and its being ringed, which last is 
the most general and the greatest of all faults. 

Ringed timber is that which has begun to 
rot or decay in the heart. When this disease 
has but just commenced, it requires a good 
judge to discover the defect, which, in a cir- 
cular manner, appears, by shewing a small 
shade of difference in the colour. 

From this variety of the quality of oak in 
the Quebec market, a proportionate variety of 
prices are produced ; the unsound, perhaps, 
selling at dd. per foot, and the best at 2s, 6d, 
Hence is the difference of the quality and cha- 
racter of Quebec-built ships most satisfactorily 
accounted for ; being built of timber which 
differ 400 per cent, in price ; their quality must 
.of necessity differ materially, and, therefore, no 
wonder that opinions the most opposite, con- 
cerning their durability, may be formed by those 
unacquainted with this circumstance, 



172 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

The quality of Quebec oak, compared with 
English and American oak,* may be judged 
of by the price it bears in the London and 
Liverpool markets. In London its price is 
generally a medium between that of the best 
and that of the worst quality of English oak, — 
maintaining a price about 20 to 30 per cent, 
higher than the worst, and about the like pro- 
portion under the best; and, in Liverpool, it 
will be found to have com^manded, for a num- 
ber of years past, a price about 20 per cent, 
higher than that imported from America. 

The quantity of oak timber exported from 
Quebec, 

LOADS. 

In 1804, was 2626 

In 1806 5452 

In 1810 --- 22,532 

Pine-timber. — There are two kinds of pine 
or fir timber exported from British North-r 
America, viz. red and yellow. There is 



* The oak-timber imported from the United States is ge-j 
nerally termed American oak, in contradistinction to that 
imported from Quebec. 



i 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 173 

none of what is properly termed white pine 
exported from these provinces. 

At the port of Quebec, as well as in the other 
ports of the St. Lawrence, pine-timber, as well 
as oak, must be inspected, and found mer- 
chantable before it can be exported. 

Neither red nor yellow pine is merchantable 
under 12 inches on the side, nor under 20 feet 
long. 

Yellow pine runs from 14 to 22 inches on 
the side, and, in some instances, even to 30, 
and from 30 to 45 feet in length : it may be 
had, however, 50 to 60 feet long, and upwards. 
It is generally perfectly straight, and remark- 
ably fre^ from knots. Indeed, many sticks, 
and even whole lots, are to be found without 
even a single knot ; this is to be accounted for 
by the extraordinary length of the timber of 
the Canadian forests in general. When the 
trees are felled, they must be greatly reduced 
in length, that they may be the more conve- 
niently hauled to the rivers which are to float 
them to market ; a large proportion of the top 
part, with all the knots, is consequently cut 
off. 

Red pine was little known in Canada be- 



1*74 tMPORTlNCE OF THE 

fore the year 1808^ when there was a small 
quantity exported. In 1809, the quantity 
shipped was very considerable; indeed, a& 
soon as it was particularly inquired after^ it wa^ 
furnished in abundance. Quebec and other 
British American red pine, for strength and 
durability, is equal to any which we import 
from any other country whatever. 

The quantity of pine-timber exported froro 
Quebec, 

LOADS* 

In 1804 was 1,012 
In 1806 - - - - 2,761 
In 1810 69,271 

Masts. — Government have been for some 
years past principally supplied with masts 
from our American provinces. These colonies 
furnish mast of the largest dimensions, even to 
35 inches. The proportionate dimensions of 
masts are three feet in length to every inch in 
diameter, at the partners, with the addition of 
Aine feet. A thirty 35-inch mast is, therefore^ 
114 feet long, which is about the greatest length 
wanted in the Royal Navy. Yellow-pine- 
masts, of the largest dimensions, are to be had 



BRItlSH AMERICAN COLONIES. 175 

in the greatest abundance ; but of red pine 
there are few to be found above 20 or 21 
inches. 

The number of masts and bowsprits exported 
from Quebec, 

PIECES. 

In 1804 was 115 

In 1806 354 

In 1810 7,655 

Deals. — The deals (or pine-plank, as they 
are tecknically termed in Canada) which are 
exported from that country, run generally 
from 2 to 3| inches thick, 7 to 1 1 broad, and 
12 feet long. They are not reckoned by any 
particular standard, but are sold by the thou- 
sand superficial feet, of their respective thick- 
nesses, reckoning 1200 to the thousand. 

There is no branch of the Canadian timber- 
trade more capable of improvement than this ; 
nor would any other improvement which could 
be introduced, be attended with more beneficial 
effects both to the British and Canadians. It 
has, indeed, within these last few years, been 
greatly improved. A few years back the deals 
and boards which were brought to market con^ 



176 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

sisted of the most irregular dimensions, both in 
length, breadth, and thickness. What are now 
produced, however, are principally reduced to 
some particular standard, generally to 12 feet 
long and either to 2, 2|, or 3 inches thick, and 
from 7 to 1 1 inches in breadth, but principally 
7, 9, or 1 1. It is to Mr. Usborne, late of 
Quebec, that the public are principally in- 
debted for this improvement in the manufacture 
of deals in Canada. There yet remains a great 
deal to be done, however, in the improvement of 
this branch of the Canadian timber-trade, both 
as regards the manufacture or preparation of the 
article, and as respects an increase in the quan- 
tity exported. — The British government have it 
in their powsr, and ought to secure, a demand 
for deals in Canada ; and the Canadian go- 
vernment have it in their power, and ought to 
encourage their preparation throughout the 
country, generally. 

It is of importance to observe, that, although 
throughout the most populous part of Lower 
Canada, particularly upon the banks of the 
St. Lawrence, below Montreal, that no trees 
fit for being converted into masts or square 
timber, now remain; yet, nevertheless, upon 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. l'^7 



those wood-lands which necessarily yet re- 
main, such as those parts which are unfit for 
agricultural purposes, parts reserved for fuel, 
&c. there are to be found abundance of trees, 
fit for deals, of various lengths. Indeed, by 
adequate protection and encouragement, a 
sufficient quantity might be furnished, not only 
for the supply of Great Britain and her West- 
Indian settlements, but also for all Europe. 

The chief support of the American shipping 
has been the exportation of deals, boards, and 
staves, which have been of late principally ob- 
tained from those parts of the United States, 
which have been for many years cleared of all 
the trees fit for masts or square timber. The 
consideration of this circumstance shews the 
importance of endeavouring to discover the 
cause why such a valuable source of wealth is 
so much neglected in the British North-Ame- 
rican provinces* 

The quantity of deals and boards exported 
from Quebec, 

PIECES. 

In 1804 was 69,067 

In 1806 66,166 

In 1810 31M32 

N 



178 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

Staves. — The exports of staves are princi- 
pally from Canada, from whence the most 
abundant supplies may be obtained. Quebec 
staves form a very important item of the ex- 
ports of Canadian lumber. As they constitute 
broken stowage to ships, which take in cargoes 
of masts and timber in the ports of the St. Lau- 
rence, at the full rate of freight, — whereas, from 
most other ports, the broken stowage of ships, 
timber-load, affords comparatively but a mere 
trifle of freight,— renders theai of vast import- 
ance to the ship-owner, and they consequently 
afford great encouragement to the exportation 
of lumber in generaL 

The encouragement of the exportation of 
staves from Canada is^ indeed, in many respects^ 
of great importance ; they are not only a va- 
luable article for the assortment of other car- 
goeS) but constitute an immense tonnage fon 
the exclusive employment of ships in the car-; 
riage of them alone. 

Their quality is excellent, commamiing m 
the London market, at the present moment, 
prices equal to those imported from I>antzic. 

Staves is an article of indispensable necessity 
to the mother-country; to. obtain supplies^ 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 179 

therefore, from her own colonies, must be a 
very desirable object ; and, consequently, the 
abundant quantity, and excellent quality, of 
those to be obtained from Quebec, must be, to 
her, considerations of great importance. 

The quantity of staves exported from Que- 
bec, 

PIECES. 

In 1804 was 1,061,195 
In 1806 - - - - 1,803,234 
In 1810 3,887,306 

The most important articles of British North- 
American produce and manufactures being 
lumber and agricultural produce, I shall there- 
fore endeavour to shew, tliat these colonies are 
capable of supphjing the most extensive demand 
which the mother country and all the other colo- 
nies, which she possesses, can afford for timber; — 
that,\f their resources are encouraged tofloxo in 
their proper channel^ they are adequate to supply 
our West-Indian settlements with flour ^ provi- 
sions^ 8^c. ; — and that it only requires a little 
well-directed attention to render them capable 
of supplying the mother-country with hemp and 
flax\ 

n2 



180 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



THE BRITISH NORTH-AMERICAN COLONIES CA- 
PABLE OF SUPPLYING THE MOTHER-COUNTRY 
AND HER OTHER COLONIES WITH TIMBER. 

As to how far the British provinces are ca- 
pable of supplying the mother-country and her 
West-Indian possessions with lumber, it may 
be observed, that no person in any degree ac- 
quainted with these parts would dispute the 
adequacy of the British-American forests to 
such supplies. 

If, therefore, they do not supply these mar- 
kets, it must be for one of the following reasons, 
viz. either that there is not a sufficient popu- 
lation to prepare and bring the produce to 
market, or that other markets, coming into 
competition with these colonies, obtain a pre- 
ference. 

With respect to the adequacy of the popula- 
tion to furnish so large a quantity, it may be 
fairly stated, that this very population has been 
hitherto completely adequate to supply the 
market to the utmost extent which has been 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 181 

hitherto called for. There may, indeed, have 
been a scarcity of a few particular articles in 
some solitary instances ; but, in every one of 
these, such partial scarcity has been uniformly 
produced by a sudden demand, occasioned by 
some unexpected contingency. 

In the greatest demand for lumber which 
has ever occurred, where a reasonable time for 
cutting down, preparing, and transporting, the 
articles, has been allowed, the market has been 
uniformly supplied to a commensurate extent. 
For, since the additional duty has been im- 
posed upon timber from the United States, and 
the supplies from the north of Europe became 
limited, on account of the war, the exportations 
from these provinces have experienced such an 
immense increase as is at least sufficient to 
convince us, that the supplies hitherto obtained 
from them afford no criterion whatever from 
which we could fairly judge of the extent to 
which they are capable of furnishing these ar- 
ticles : and, moreover, at this immensely-aug- 
mented demand has been most abundantly 
answered, at moderate prices, it is equally de- 
monstrable that the quantity hitherto obtained 



182 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

from these colonies will not, in the smallest 
degree, prove them inadequate to supply the 
mother-country, and her West-Indian islands 
also, with all the lumber they require. 

By inspecting No. 2, in the Appendix, it 
will be found that the exports of lumber from 
the British provinces, in 1806, was 95,975 
loads, and in 1810, 311,114, of which 160,932 
loads were exported from Quebec, being about 
five times the quantity exported from that port 
in 1806; yet, notwithstanding this vast increase 
which took place, no scarcity was upon the 
whole experienced. For, although there might 
have been a short supply of some particular 
articles, there were more of other articles than 
could be taken off; and this superabundant 
quantity, perhaps, amounted to ten times that 
of the deficiency. 

Notwithstanding the immense shipments 
which were made from Quebec in 1808, 1809, 
and 1810, as will be found in the list of exports 
from that port, as stated in No. 1, there still 
remained a considerable number of articles 
unshipped in the fall of the latter year. And 
in that fall, although the prospect of a greater 



BRITISH AMERICAN COI^NJES^ 1S3 

demand the ensuing season was very evident, 
timber was contracted for at even lower prices 
than those at which contracts were made in the 
preceding year. 

Indeed, one of the most convincing and de- 
cisive proofs of the abundant resources of 
lumber which the Canadas possess is, that 
excepting the article of oak-timber, prices ac- 
tually continued declining from 1807 to 1810, 
notwithstanding the enormous increase which 
had continued to take place in the quan- 
tity exported, (as has been already stated). 
The price at which staves and pine-timber 
(which articles constitute the principal bulk 
of the exports of lumber) sold, during the 
summer, and which were contracted for in 
the fall of 1810, was not much above half 
the price which prevailed during the sum- 
mer of 1807. 

Another most important circumstance that 
may be noticed, concerning the abundant re- 
sources of lumber which these colonies possess, 
is, that in three or four years the increase in 
the exports of that article, from the port of 
Quebec alone, was equal to the whole supply 
of our West-Indian possessions. For, by in- 



184 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

spectiug Nos. 2 and 6, in the Appendix, it will 
be found that the increase in the exports of 
that article, from the port of Quebec, from the 
year 1806 to 1810, was 127,998 loads, whilst 
the annual supply of our West-Indian settle- 
ments was only about 117,740 loads. . And it 
is of material importance to remark, that, not- 
withstanding this increase, so far from the ex- 
tent of the supplies which may be obtained 
from the Canadas being ascertained, that the 
market was equally well supplied with every 
species of that article, and the capability of a 
still farther increase apparently greater than it 
was four or five years before, when there was 
but about one-fifth part of the quantity ex- 
ported. 

Indeed, it is evident, as the pernicious laws 
and regulations which affected the exportation 
of lumber from British America ceased to ope- 
rate, the exports of that article experienced a 
proportionable increase. 
. These important and now-established facts 
shew the genuineness of the opinions of those, 
who, a considerable time back, advocated the 
capability of these provinces to furnish our 
West-India^n possessions with their supplies of 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 185 



lumber. For, but a few years ago, those who 
asserted that the British provinces possessed 
this capability, were literally, laughed at. Such 
opinions being held up to ridicule by mer- 
chants, whose profits were arising out of mea- 
sures at variance with the interests of their 
country, were then ridiculed or disregarded, 
and, therefore, the arguments used to prove 
that the pernicious consequences of those im- 
politic commercial treaties, which we had en- 
tered into with other countries, and that most 
mistaken policy by which the commercial in- 
tercourse between our West-Indian islands and 
the United States was regulated, were the 
causes which prevented the British provinces 
from supplying our West-Indian possessions 
with lumber, were considered as futile and 
ridiculous. 

The advocates for the American interest had 
only to urge in reply, what these colonies, thus 
crippled and discouraged, had hitherto done ; 
and this bare assertion was considered, bv the 
superficial politician of the day, a sufficient 
refutation of this now -indisputable and sub- 
stantiated fact, For, in the short period of 
three or four years, the increase of the tx- 



186 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

portation of lumber, from the Canadas alone, 
was equal to the whole demand of our 
West-Indian islands ; anci that the oak- 
timber, exported in 1810, from Quebec only, 
was more than equal to half the quantity 
annually used in the whole of our government 
dock-yards, are facts so broadly founded, that 
not all the sophistry of those, who, either from 
sinister motives or erroneous hypotheses, es- 
pouse the cause of the American government, 
nor all the eloquence of the advocates of the 
United States in the British parliament can, 
in the remotest degree, controvert. 

For, although our own legislators, misled by 
the advice and information of interested in- 
dividuals, continued ignorant of this valuable 
source of national wealth, and, in that igno- 
rance, persisted in damming up its current with 
the very rubbish which they removed to clear 
a commercial channel for our bitterest enemieSj 
yet the operation of time and circumstances 
have brought about events which have exhibit- 
ed to full view the vast importance to this trade ; 
and, in the short space of four years, raised the 
freights earned by our ships, in the exportation 
of the produce of these provinces, from less 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 187 

than jf; 1,000,000 to nearly j£ 2,500,000* 
Our enemies, by their insatiable avarice, en- 
couraged by that tameness with which we sub- 
mitted to their artifices, — by their inordinate 
ambition, engendered by British pusilanimity,— 
and by their unmerited envy and hatred, blasting 
their own malignant purposes, have thus re- 
vealed to us this most important fact. 

The Americans, by their embargo, with- 
held all those supplies with which they were in 
the habit of furnishing us ; and Buonaparte, 
by the rigors of what he termed his continen- 
tal system, prevented our supplies from the 
north of Europe; and, what is a still more 
important consideration, the rigorous measures 
of this oppressive and too-successful tyrant, 
prevented, at least in a considerable degree, 
the operation of the baneful effects of our 
ruinous licensing system, and thereby produced 
a most uncommonly large demand upon Ca- 
nada for lumber ; — a demand, however ,_which, 
notwithstanding its having been so large and 
unexpected, was as abundantly answered as 



* See No. 8, in the Appendix, 



188 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



that which was experienced three or four years 
preceding, when no more than one-fifth part 
of the quantity was required. 

It was then made clearly manifest, that 
the quantity of lumber, which had hitherto 
been shipped from the British colonies, bore but 
a very small proportion to the quantity which 
these provinces were capable of furnishing. 
Neither is it yet known to what extent they 
could furnish this article for exportation, for 
all which has hitherto been required has been 
obtained. 

Government have never found any difficulty 
in obtaining abundant supplies of all the 
timber they required ; such as square oak, 
masts, spars, red and white square pine, deals, 
staves, &c. 

For, up to the present moment, notwith- 
standing the immense increase in the demand 
for lumber of every description, which has 
lately been experienced, they have always 
found contractors ready to engage to furnish, 
at reasonable prices, the largest quantities 
which they have ever advertised for ; — this is 
the best proof of the abundance which may 

be obtained. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 189 

Any partial scarcities, in the supply of mer- 
chants orders, which may have occasionally 
happened, are solely to be attributed to the 
demand having been occasional and unex- 
pected ; and because the orders were not sent 
in time to have the articles contracted for from 
the people who fell the timber in the woods 
and float it to the shipping-ports ; whereas, the 
extent of the quantity wanted, by governinent, 
being known the year before it is required for 
shipping, has been uniformly furnished in the 
most ample abundance. The amount of the 
quantity which may be sufficient to supply the 
demand for merchants, however, is always, ia 
some measure, uncertain ; and, consequently, as 
the anticipated demand, is over or under-rated, 
the scarcity or abundance will be proportion* 
ably commensurate. Indeed, the greatest irre- 
gularity and uncertainty of demand, and, con- 
sequently, a proportionate fluctuation of prices 
has prevailed for a number of years past. 

The alternation of peace or war in the north 
of Europe has had no inconsiderable influ- 
ence in this respect ; but the most incalculable 
irregularities and inconveniencies, experienced 
by these provinces, in the demand for lumber. 



190 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



as well as other articles, have arisen from the 
importations received into Great Britain fey 
licences : and these irregularities were the sole 
cause of the partial scarcities, which have, in 
some solitary instances, appeared in these co- 
lonies. 

Now, however, as an interposition of provi* 
dence has divulged the secret, and. convinced 
us, (I had almost said, against our inclination,) 
that we were in the possession of an abundant 
source of the most valuable species of national 
wealth, of which we continued ignorant, and 
has clearly shewn us, that it. was only our owa 
impolitic laws, and the improper arrangement 
of our commercial concerns by government^ 
that prevented our receiving the most abundant 
supplies from these colonies, let us not again 
check the growing prosperity of these valuable 
colonies by regulations similarly pernicious. 

Considering the very small proportion that 
the tonnage of the manufactures which we 
export, bears to our imports or tonnage em- 
ployed ia foreign trade; and that this pro- 
portion is rendered still smaller by the quantity 
exported in foreign bottoms, it will appear that 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 191 

the support of our shippinjo' must, and does, 
depend upon the carriage of our imports. 

For it will be found that, although the amount 
of the manufactured goods which we export, is, 
in point of value, enormously great, yet, in point 
of bulk, they are comparatively small; and, con- 
sequently, the amount of their tonnage, when 
compared with the exient of the tonnage of 
our merchant-shipping, is comparatively tri:fling. 

The advantages which the country in general 
derives from the exportation of our manufac- 
tures are great in proportion to the amount of 
their value ; but the advantages resulting to our 
shipping-interest, in particular, is but of trifling 
importance in proportion to the comparative 
smallness of their tonnage. 

It, therefore, necessarily follows, that, by far 
the greater proportion of our ships clearing- 
out, upon foreign voyages, are obliged to sail 
in ballast ; and, therefore, the competition for 
the outward freights is such, that goods are 
frequently carried out at such a low rate, that, 
in many instances, the ships that sail in ballast 
are more successful than those which take 
goods on freight ; the principal dependence 
is consequently upon the homeward freight 



192 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

It follows, of course, that the most bulky ar- 
ticles, or such articles as require the greatest 
quantity of tonnage, must necessarily be of 
the greatest importance in this respect ; and, 
considering the many bulky commodities which 
the British North- American provinces produce, 
hence the intimate connexion between the im- 
provement of our shipping and the encourage- 
ment of these colonies. One of the most im- 
portant of these articles of produce is timber, 
which, although it be but of comparatively 
small value, is, nevertheless, of infinitely more 
importance to us, in every commercial point of 
view, than all the riches in India :- — the timber 
we have imported from these provinces has 
lately afforded fiYe times as much employment 
to British ships as the gross amount of all our 
Asiatic imports. 

The comparatively small value of timber 
to its bulk, however, does not lessen its con- 
sequence as an article of trade ; but, on the 
contrary, renders it of more importance. For, 
let it be remembered, that a ton of pine or fir 
timber pays proportionably the same freight 
as a ton of any of the most valuable articles 
which we import. It matters not to the ship- 



BRITISH AMEItlCAN COLONIES. 193 

owiiei% whether his ship carries pine timber, 
worth onlyj at shipping, 20^. a ton, or indigo 
worth ^700 a ton ; — whether she carries cod- 
fish from Newfoundland, or gold-dust from 
the coast of Africa, since competition must of 
necessity bring the freight of the one, compara- 
tively, as low as the freight of the other. 

It is obvious, indeed, that the bulkier the 
article the more it becomes a national object 
to secure the freight of it : and, therefore, it 
is equally desirable to secure the carriage of 
the timber we import, as it is important to 
protect and encourage our merchant-shipping, 
— that shipping which supplies our navy with 
men, and forms the very basis of that com- 
merce by which alone we have become great, 
by which we are enabled to support the great 
expense that .cures our dignity and indepen- 
dence ; nay, perhaps, our veiy existence as a 
nation. Consequently, the bent of all such of 
our commercial regulations as in any way con- 
cern the importation of timber into this country 
ought to be carefully directed, so as to effect 
this important purpose. And in no way would 
it be more easily accomplished than by a proper 
attention being paid to the inexhaustible sup^ 



104 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



plies of this article, which may be obtained 
from O'ur American provinces : the value, there- 
fore, of these colonies to the mother-country 
is great in proportion as her shipping is im- 
portant to her. 

When we reflect that, agreeably to the opi- 
nion which generally prevailed, a considerable 
number of intelligent persons have, even up 
to the period of the occurrences which have 
stated, respecting the late increase in the quan- 
tity of lumber exported from the British Ame- 
rican provinces, insisted that these colonies 
were not capable of supplying our West-Indian 
islands with that article. We cannot help con- 
eluding that their opinions, regarding the other 
productions of these provinces, may be also 
founded upon principles equally erroneous, and, 
therefore, their conclusions as false as they 
have evidently been regarding lumber. For, 
that these provinces are capable of supplying 
our West-Indian settlements wath that article 
is a fact now established beyond all doubt; 
and, if this capability is not put in requisition, 
it is the fault of the British government. 

Of all our improvements in commerce, whe- 
ther in opening new channels or improving the 
old, the improvement of the trade of our own 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 195 

colonies is the most important, considering 
that in this we enjoy, without rivalship, the 
undivided benefit resulting from it. And, in 
no instance, does this maxim more aptly appl;f 
than in our trade and intercourse with our 
American provinces, especially in the exporta- 
tion of timber from these colonies, which, as 
has before been observed, is not only most ad- 
vantageous and encouraging to the improve- 
ment of our commerce in general, but of the 
most material consequence to our shipping-in- 
terest in particular. 

We have, however, in every article of im- 
portance, but particularly in lumber, neglected, 
discouraged, and sacrificed, the interests of 
these colonies to the United States, almost up 
to the present period : the birth of American 
independence, which ought to have brought 
and secured to these provinces a multiplicity of 
privileges and advantages, was a death-blow 
to their prosperity. 

Indeed, the Americans enjoyed benefits from 
this country, to the prejudice both of our co- 
lonies and' of our shipping-interest, of such a 
nature, as, I believe, no nation ever enjoyed 
from another before, namely, exclusive of the 

o2 



J 96 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



greatest advantages over other foreigners, the 
rights and privileges of British subjects. 

For their produce being admitted into this 
Country, at the same rates of duty as the produce 
of our own colonies, whilst they, as an inde- 
pendent nation, had the ports of all other coun- 
tries, as well as those of Great Britain, open 
to them ; whereas, the produce of our own 
colonies being confined to the mother-country 
for a market, they were thereby, at all times, 
but particularly at such periods as they expe- 
rienced a want of demand from other countries, 
encouraged in glutting our markets with lum- 
ber and other articles, thereby creating the great- 
est irregularities in our supplies. Our colonists 
were, therefore, unable to make head against 
such a current of difficulties and disadvan- 
tages; — being confined to the British ports, 
where they were denied the rightful privi- 
leges, which belonged to them,* both they and 
our ship-owners were obliged, tamely, to sub- 
mit to this monopoly of our supplies of Ame- 
rican timber, by the United States, notwith- 
standing the forests of our own provinces 
produced that article, comparatively, of a far 



* See Nos. 3 and 4, in the Appendix, 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 197 

^■■■■■■BiaBHBaHBia^i^BBHHaBaB^MB^aB^i^iaaaHia^MaaaH^BaBBaHBBHaBnanaDaBiBaBnBBM 

better quality, whilst our own ships, otherwise 
unemployed and rotting in port, could haie 
transported it to the British market. 

They had likewise, as has been already 
fully explained, the supplies of our West-In- 
dian plantations so completely secured to them, 
that of 117,740 loads annually imported into 
these colonies, they had an opportunity af- 
forded them, by the impolicy of our govern- 
ment, of furnishing 113,600; whilst the dis- 
advantages, which our own provinces laboured 
under, were such as prevented their obtainmg 
any larger share of this profitable ti-ade than 
about 3439 loads. And, moreover, they had not 
onlythefurnishingofthesuppliesoftheseislands 
thus far secured to their market, but the car- 
riage of the goods to their ships ; so that out 
of £ 1,766,639, which appears to be about the 
amount of the freight of the principal articles 
of lumber, flour, grain, provisions, &c. annu- 
ally imported into these settlements, their ships 
earned ^1,477,301, whilst British ship-owners 
were suffering the greatest distress, for want of 
employment for their shipping. 

The most convincing proof of the sacrifice 
of our interests, in respect to the neglected 
resources of lumber, which these pro- 



198 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

vinces possess, (according to what 1 have 
already stated,) will be found in the com- 
parative amount of their exports of this ar- 
ticle, which, for six or seven years previous to 
the interruption of our commercial dealings 
with America, was nearly stationary ; but, 
upon an interruption of this commercial inter- 
course taking place, when a fair opportunity 
was afforded them, immediately increased to 
an enormous extent; — the Canadas having, in 
the space of three or four years, increased 
their exports of lumber five-fold ; and the other 
two provinces having, in the same short period, 
nearly doubled theirs : — the exports of timber 
from these provinces were thereby, in four years, 
raised from 96,975 loads to 311,114; adding 
no less than ^'1,721,040 to the freights earned 
by British shipping. 

If these colonies, from the transient occur- 
rences of these four years, produced the vast 
addition to the freights of our ships in the car- 
riage of our timber, with still as much, or even 
more, apparent capability of increase as they 
appeared to possess a few years before, when 
they were shackled and discouraged, — what 
might not the operation of measures calcula- 
ted to encourage the exportation of that article 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. IQQ 

have produced in the course of thirty years ? — 
which is the lapse of time since American in- 
dependence, and the period of our first, peace 
with that country ; — and I sincerely hope, that 
as the Americans have, even in opposition to 
their own interests, by wantonly and malici- 
ously lending themselves the degraded tool of 
the scourge of the human race, put a period 
to this peace and amity, that our eyes will be 
so far open to our own interest as to make the 
commencement of this war the termination of 
the sacrifice of the rights and privileges of 
British colonists and British ship-owners to that 
degraded country. 



CAPABILITY OF OUR NORTH-AMERICAN PRO- 
VINCES TO SUPPLY OUR WEST-INDIAN SET- 
TLEMENTS WITH AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE, 
SUCH AS FLOUR, BREAD, GRAIN, PROVI- 
SIONS, &C. 

One of the most-important objects, which 
would be answered by the exportation of flour, 
&c. from these colonies, is the supply of our 
West-Indian possessions. 



200 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

The adequacy of these provinces to such 
supplies is a subject which has often been dis- 
cussed in the British parliament, and by the 
parties immediately interested. But, although 
these discussions have certainly brought forth 
much important information, I may safely say, 
they have never produced a single measure cal- 
culated to bring about this desirable end. 

Hovrever, that these provinces, or, even the 
Canadas alone, are capable of supplying our 
West-Indian settlements with flour, ^c, is a 
proposition which I have no doubt I shall be 
able to demonstrate in the clearest manner. 

Of the supplies of flour, bread, and provi- 
sions, hitherto obtained from our North- Ame- 
rican colonies, the principal part has been fur- 
nished by the Canadas : and, moreover, as 
these two provinces, from the superior excel- 
lence of their soil, the immensity of their terri- 
torial extent, and other local advantages, possess 
considerably the most extensive and improve- 
able resources, not only with respect to fur- 
nishing these, but every other species of agri- 
cultural produce, it is to these provinces, 
therefore, that we must principally look for 
these important articles. I shall, consequently, 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES, 201 

confine my observations respecting agricultural 
produce more particularly to the Canadas. 

By looking into No. 6, in the Appendix, it 
appears that 1,300,000 bushels of wheat and 
other grain are equal to the annual supply of 
our West-Indian settlements with flour, meal, 
bread, and grain. The amount of these arti- 
cles, hitherto exported from the Canadas, no 
doubt, falls short of this demand, being only, 
upon an average of eight years, equal to about 
one-fourth of the requisite quantity, as appears 
by No. 2, in the Appendix : this cicumstance, 
however, and my present proposition, namely, 
that the British provinces, or, even the Cana- 
das alone, are capable of yielding these sup- 
plies, can be satisfactorily accounted for. 

Indeed, the causes which have hitherto dis- 
couraged the exportation of flour and lumber, 
as well as every other kind of produce, from 
our American possessions, have been so many, 
and operated so powerfully, (as may be ob- 
served by what has been already stated,) as to 
constitute matter of surprise, that the exports 
from these settlements should have been so 
considerable. 

The demand upon these provinces for flour 



202 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



and lumber having been of late greatly in- 
creased, and this increased demand for lumber 
being abundantly answered, whilst the exports 
of wheat and flour experienced but little in- 
crease, does not by any means disprove my 
proposition ; for, although the disadvantages 
which our colonies laboured under may, in 
many respects, have alike hindered the expor- 
tation of these articles, yet, in others, their 
effects were very different in their operation. 

For example, the Canadian forests affording 
an inexhaustible supply of lumber, and there 
being a sufficient number of hands to be ob- 
tained to cut it down and float it to market, 
the largest quantity which has or would be 
wanted to complete the supplies, of which I 
baye stated these provinces to be capable of 
furnishing, has, therefore, been, and will con- 
tinue to be, furnished in abundance. For, ex- 
clusive of the lumber which the forests of the 
British provinces produce, that of all the im- 
mense tract of the United States territory lying 
upon Lake Champlain, the south banks of the 
St. Laurence and its tributary streams, must 
also either be shipped from the ports of the St, 
Laurence, or remain an incumbrance to the 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 203 

ground : — the waters upon which it grows must 
float it to market, — to the ports of the St. Lau- 
rence, or it is not worth the cutting down. — If 
there is no demand for it in ports of the British 
provinces, it must remain growing in the forest, 
or be destroyed and consumed to make way 
for agricultural improvements, — And even al- 
though the British government should again, 
(as they have for the last thirty years,) by the 
strange and unaccountable encouragement and 
facilities which they have unjustly given to 
American commerce, neglect and discourage 
the interests of British subjects in this valuable 
commerce ; yet it will at least be some conso- 
lation, (however small,) to reflect that that part 
of the timber of this extensive country, which 
might thus be prevented from being shipped in 
the St. Laurence, cannot be shipped from the 
ports of the United States, so as to come in 
competition with shipments from the British 
provinces. 

But how very different the case is with re-^ 
spect to flour and provisions; their exportation 
is capable of being diverted into various chan- 
nels, accordingly as it may be affected by po- 



204 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

litical circumstances. These articles being 
the surplus produce of the lands already clear- 
ed and cultivated, and constituting a conside- 
rable portion of the means of the inhabitants 
for supplying themselves v\^ith other necessaries ; 
and from their small bulk, compared with lum- 
ber, they are, therefore, capable of conveyance 
by channels, through which lumber, from its 
greater bulk, is incapable of being transported, 
will, therefore, be raised in abundance through- 
out this fertile country, and will certainly find 
a market, whether the British government en- 
courage (or I may say allow) the exportation 
of them through the St. Laurence or not. 

It is, indeed, to be regretted, that the first 
fruits of the commerce of the vast tract of fertile 
country now settling along the Canadian fron- 
tiers have been expelled the Canadian market, 
by the impolitic measures of the British govern- 
ment.* For when any branch of trade or com- 
merce is once established in any particular chan- 
nel, the longer it is confined to that direction the 



* See pp. 89 to 10^. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 205 

more difficult it will be to divert it from its wont- 
ed course. And it may be observed, that the 
current of commerce, arising out of the agricul- 
tural produce of this extensive and fertile coun- 
try, cannot, like that arising from the exporta- 
tion of the wood of the forest, be checked in 
the fountain, but has and will continue to find 
another course, until om* government shall open 
that which is most congenial to it. 

The ports of the St. Laurence are certainly 
the most convenient for the commerce of all 
that vast tract of country, lying upon the 
banks of that noble river ; and the chain of 
lakes which it unites, as well that upon the 
American side as that upon the Canadian. In- 
deed, nothing short of such confused and vac- 
cillating measures as have hitherto marked the 
disposition of all our commercial concerns in 
that quarter of the world, will be sufficient to 
prevent the trade of this part of America from 
flowins: in this its most natural channel, 

A well-directed line of policy, respecting 
these colonies, would, no doubt, add to the 
Canadian exports the whole produce of this 
important portion of the United States ; the 



200 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

rapid settlement, fertility, and improvement of 
which, and its contignity with the navigable 
waters and shipping ports of the St. Lanrencey 
have lately so greatly excited the jealousy and 
roused the attention of the American govern- 
ment. 

The exportation of wheat and flour from Ca- 
nada, viewed in all its bearings, is a subject 
which exhibits a variety of circumstances that 
altogether form the most complete anomaly, 
which we could conceive it possible to be pro- 
duced. 

It is a notorious fact, that flour and provi- 
sions have been carried from the very banks of 
the St. Laurence to the ports of the United 
States, a distance of many hundred miles, by 
various tedious and expensive means of con- 
veyance, by land-carriage, by canals, by rivers, 
&c. at an immense expense and loss of time ; 
and, notwithstanding the goods were for the 
supply of our West-Indian islands, commanded 
a better price in the ports of the United States, 
even after all this loss of time and accumulated 
expense, than they would have brought in the 
port of Montreal, where, compared with the 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 207 

••■■'"■ ' ■• ■ M^i— —n iM.i. ;; ! ;; ■ n . .■.■ m , . -r- 

American ports, the produce might have been 
carried in a much shorter time and at a much 
smaller expense. 

The cause of this transportation was very 
obvious. Insuperable obstacles were thrown 
in the way of produce being shipped from the 
Canadas to our West-Indian settlements; and, 
consequently, the prices of wheat and ilour 
were regulated, in these provinces, by the de- 
mand for wheat for the British market. 

And, it is no less extraordinary than true, 
that, whilst these very occurrences were taking 
place, the question, whether or not, or how 
far, our American provinces were capable of 
supplying our West-Indian possessions with 
American produce, was, at various times, 
gravely discussed in the British parliament,— 
evidence examined, with all the usual formali- 
ties ; and the opinions, which appear to have 
been the result of these inquiries, were, that, 
although these provinces might, at some future 
day, do much, yet they were not now capable 
of supplying the British settlements in the 
West Indies,— no, not exien with lumber, nor 
with ships to carry it from the United States : 
and, therefore, as heretofore, we continued to 



208 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

apply to the Americans for these supplies, and 
generously, to the exclusion of our own ships, 
employed theirs to carry the goods to market. 

Exclusive of the information which might 
have been derived from this unaccountable 
transportation of flour from the neighbourhood 
of the St. Laurence, to the ports of the United 
States, a practice which had prevailed in Ca- 
nadian commerce ever since the American 
independence, was also sufficient of itself to 
indicate the existence of some insurmountable 
obstacle to the shipment of Canadian flour to 
our West-Indian plantations, namely, the ship- 
ment of wheat from Canada to Great Britain, 
and flour from Great Britain to the West In- 
dies, being tantamount to sending wheat from 
Canada to Great Britain to be manufactured 
for the West-Indian market, whilst it could 
have been manufactured to as great perfection 
in the Canadas as in Great Britain, and sent 
from Quebec to the West Indies at compara- 
tively as low a freight and by a shorter pas- 
sage. 

It, therefore, appears, that, between mer- 
chants commissions, shipping charges, freight, 
insurance, out-lay of money, &c. not less than 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 209 

4s, 6d. per bushel* upon the wheat, was ac- 
tually sacrificed. 

It may, therefore, be asked, why not manu- 
facture the wheat m Canada, and ship the flour 
to the West Indies ? — One wouki be ready to 
conchide, that, if this was not done, it must 
have been for want of mills to manufacture it, 
ships to carry it, or merchants to carry on the 
trade. With regard both to a want of ships 
for this trade, or of merchants to embark into 
it, ho such inconvenience existed, nor, indeed, 
could possibly be supposed to exist : neither 
could there be said to be a want of mills. 

Although, for some years after the indepen- 
denceof the United States, the mills to be found 
in the country might not have been sufficient 
to convert the whole wheat which was pro- 
duced into flour ; yet, as there were many 

■•£.s. d 
* Commission upon wheat, at 7*. 6</. per bushel 44 

Shipping charges, &c ^ 3 

Freight 27^: 

Landing and warehousing in Great Britain^ 

interest, commission, waste, <ic. and )> 1 3 
merchants profit 



\ 



^0 4 G 
P 



210 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

mills subsequently erected, upon a large scale 
and according to the most-improved principles, 
there is no doubt but that had such encourage- 
ment and protection been given to the exporta- 
tion of flour from Canada to the West Indies^ 
as to have secured a steady demand, the mills 
would have been found atlequate to manufac- 
ture all the wheat raised in the country. 

Neither can it be supposed that either capi- 
tal or enterprise was wanting. Indeed, where- 
ever channels have been open^ed to British 
commerce, it has invariably happened, that 
every branch has been so eagerly grasped at as 
to prove, that, instead of either of these re- 
quisites being wanting, there generally appears 
a superabundance of both. 

If, however, the shipment of Canadian pro- 
duce to the West Indies can be said to have 
ever been a channel opened to Bi4tish com- 
merce, it may very properly be observed, that 
those \y ho opened it left it in such an i^nfini^hed 
and slovenly state, that it only proved a trap 
to ensnare(the British merchant, and detei* him 
froni coming in competition with the Ameri- 
cans, in the supplying of our West-Indian set- 
tlements» 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 211 

It may not bc^ improper to inquire who sus- 
tains this loss of 4^. dd, per bushel upon wheat, 
incurred in the transportation of that article 
from Canada to Great Britain, and flour from 
Great Britain to the West Indies, as already 
stated. 

Respecting' this inquiry, it may be observed, 
that these islands appear to have b^eii supplied 
with /lour from Great Britain, the British pro- 
vinces, and the United States ; and that a large 
portion of the surplus produce of Canadian 
wheat, and also a considerable proportion of the 
flour, exported from the United States, were 
regularly shipped to Great Britain ; and that 
the prices of flour, both in the British provinces 
and the United States, must have, therefore, 
been regulated by the price in Great Britain, 
and, consequently, comparatively much lower. 

it is obvious, therefore, that our West-In- 
dian colonists could have been supplied with 
flour at a much lower rate from either of these 
markets than from the mother-country ; and it 
consequently follows, that had either the' British 
provinces or the United States been allowed to 
have afforded these supplies in a regular manner, 
the prices in the West Indies would have cor- 

p2 



211^ IMPORTANCE OF THJl 

resjoonded with the prices in these markets, 
added to the expense of transportation. 

But of these three markets, Great Britain 
had only a fair, uninterrupted, and unrestrict- 
ed, opportunity of importing this article into 
our West-Indian islands. For, the imports from 
the United States were precarious and uncer- 
tain, from their being only made in Conse- 
quence of the occasional suspension of our na- 
vigation-laws, by which they were expressly 
prohibited: — and the importation of produce 
from the British provinces was a trade which 
the irregular imports from the States, coupled 
with the peculiarities of the climate, and the 
local situation of these provinces, rendered ex- 
tremely speculative and uncertain. — Great Bri- 
tain, from her extensive and regular intercourse 
with the West Indies in other commodities, 
had, therefore, compared with the American 
provinces, abetter opportunity of securing a 
fair average of that market for her exports of 
flour and provisions. 

Let us suppose the price of flour .in Great 
Britain, either at any particular period, or, upon 
an average, before any of the late restrictions 
were laid upon our intercourse witb America, to 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 213 



have been ^3 per barrel : the prices, both in 
Canada and the United States, being generally 
regulated by the prices in Great Britain, andj 
as the expense of transportation from either 
country to England would be about X'l? 1^^ 
price of flour in those markets must have con- 
sequently been\£2 per barrel. Here, there- 
fore, appears the mystery — wheat continuing 
to be sent from Canada to Great Britain, and 
flour as regularly shipped from Great Britain 
to the West-Indian market, which was open to 
the Canadians upon the same terms as to the 
British — and the expense of transportation from 
each country, comparatively, about the same. 
Nothing can account for this, as I have already 
explained, but the great irregularities, which 
prevailed in the West-Indian market, from the 
manner in which the supplies from the United 
States were introduced, coupled with the pe- 
culiarities respecting the British provinces, — 
but, as already observed, peculiarities which, 
unattended by such absurdities, would have 
proved to be but little or no inconvenience.* 



* See observations upon the opening of the ports of ouv 
colonies to the Americans, chap. iii. 



214 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

It is evident that the importation of flour 
into the West Indies, from Great Britain, must 
have been found upon the whole to have an- 
swered the purpose of the importer, as may 
be concluded from the quantity imported, as 
stated in No. 6, in the Appendix ; it must have 
one time with another paid the expense of 
transportation. This expense, which we may 
compute at 20^. per barrel, as already ob- 
served, added to the price in Great Bri- 
tain, estimated at ^3, the price in the West 
Indies must have, therefore, averaged ^4 per 
barrel. 

Now, in the second place, as this average 
price of flour in Great Britain would not have 
afforded more than £2 per barrel in Canada; 
the expense of transportation being 20^.; and 
the expense of transportation, from Canada to 
the West-Indies, being even comparatively less 
than from Great Britain, it is obvious that, 
unless some great impediment had interrupted 
this intercourse, that either the inhabitants 
of our West-Indian settlements would have 
had flour from Canada at ^3 per barrel 
instead of £4; or, that the Canadians would 
Jiave received ^3 per barrel for their flour, in- 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES 215 



stead of £1 : or, at any rate this 20^. per bar- 
rel must have been shared between them. 

As it therefore appears, from the very consi- 
derable and regular importation of flour and. 
bread into the West Indies from Great Britain^ 
that the price of flour must have, one time with 
another, amidst the fluctuations to which it was 
rendered liable, been so high as to. have afford-; 
ed the importer the expense of transportation, 
it is evident, therefore, that this loss of 20s. per 
barrel upon flour, being equal to about 4^. 6d 
per bushel upon wheat, must have fallen upon 
the Canadian farmer. — 

And who proiitted by this enormous loss, oc- 
casioned by our legislative tolerations, interfe- 
rences, or arrangements, concerning this inter- 
course between our West-Indian settlements 
and the United States? The Americans only. 
The ports of these islands, whenever any scar- 
city took place, were opened to American pro- 
duce, which was admitted free of duty or any 
sort of restraint, and again shut when supplies 
were obtained; — their opening and shutting thus 
becoming each a consequence of the other.^ 



* See Page 93 to m. 



216 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

Instead, therefore, of being as originally in- 
tended, to encourage and defend the interests 
of Great Btitain and her colonies, our naviga- 
tion-laws were absolutely perverted to serve the 
Americans, and sacrifice the interests of the 
British colonist and the British merchant, for 
whose exclusive interest these laws were origi- 
nally framed. 

Had the supplying of our West-Indian 
islands been so regulated, that the West-Indian 
market would have afforded a regular and 
steady demand for flour in Canada, this 4^. 6d. 
per bushel would have at once operated in sti- 
mulating the Canadian farmer to greater exer- 
tions in the growth of wheat, and also as a pre- 
mium to encourage the transport of the pro- 
duce of that part of the United States which 
borders upon Canada to the St. Laurence. 

It may be further remarked respecting the 
surplus-produce of wheat, &c. raised in Cana- 
da, as stated in Nos. 1 and 6, in the Appendix, 
and the annual consumption of the manufac- 
tures from that article in the West Indies, that 
this surplus appears to bear but a small propor- 
tion to the annual consumption of these islands. 
Nothing, how^ever, could be more absurd and 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 217. 

unreasonable than to draw the conclusiort of 
inadequacy from this circumstance, the re- 
sources and capabilities of these provinces 
never having* been put to the test. 

Surely no person in any degree acquaint- 
ed with the subject could argue that their 
resources were ever yet fairly put to the 
test, or were ever directed to, or in any manner 
encouraged to assume this channel, whilst such, 
positive and manifest proofs as have been addu- 
ced exist, that Canadian flour, as well as other 
Canadian produce, is positively excluded the 
West-Indian market. Whilst wheat continues to 
be shipped from Canada to Great Britain, and 
flour from Great Britain to the West Indies, 
their inadequacy to such supply is inadmissi- 
ble, as a reason why these provinces do not 
supply their sister colonies with flour. 

Had the parliamentary inquiries, which have 
been made, concerning the adequacy of the 
Cartadas to yield these supplies, been directed 
to the circumstance of this unaccountable 
transportation, the true causes might have been 
discovered and removed, and the Canadas 
rendered, not only adequate to these supplies 
at this day, but also capable of furnishing the 



218 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

iiiother-cotintry with a considerable quantity.— 
Our legislators would have discovered that the 
fluctuation of prices, and uncertainty of de- 
mand, to which the West-Indian market was 
rendered liable, and the risks and disappoint- 
ments to which the Canadians were subjected 
in their attempts to supply these islands with 
flour, were the effects of their own impolitic 
measures, and the true causes which pi^vented 
these provinces from furnishing our West- 
Indian possessions with an abundant supply. 

The eifectual supply of our West- Indian 
islands with flour from the Canadas must ne- 
cessarily be connected with several subordinate 
arrangements, the encouragement and protec- 
tion of which are essential in producing that 
effect, and also, to the existence of such a trade 
after it may have assumed that channel. — Ar- 
rangements must have been entered into by a 
variety of classes of people in these provinces, 
for carrying into effect the transportation of 
wheat and flour from the United States to the 
ports of the St. Laurence ; — for erecting mills 
for the manufacture of such inn ports of wheat ; 
— for establishing ships in the trade for the regu- 
lar transportation of produce to the West Indies, 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 219 



But neither of these arrangements could have 
been made upon any reasonable grounds of 
success, whilst so much uncertainty existed 
with regard to the West-Indian market. 

Having pointed out the causes which have 
prevented the Canadas from supplying our 
West-Indian colonists with flour, &c. and 
clearly shewn, that the smallness of the quan- 
tity of that article hitherto exported from these 
provinces is no proof of their being inadequate 
to furnish these islands with the most abundant 
supplies, I shall now endeavour to prove, that 
they may in a very short period be rendered 
capable of yielding more than sufficient to sa- 
tisfy the greatest demand which our settlements 
in the West Indies require. This capability 
consists, in the first place, in the supplies which 
might be draxvnfrom the United-States side of the 
St. Laurence; secondly, in the further exten- 
sion of agriculture upon the vast tracts of fer- 
tile land, still unsettled in these provinces ; and 
thirdly, in the agricultural improvements of 
which the land noxo under cultivation is capable. 

With respect to the first position, viz. the 
supplies to be drawn from the United-States 
side of the St. Laurence, it may be observed. 



2^0 IMPORTANCE Ot THfi 



that' although this is not the most important 
source, yet it is the one from whence the most 
immediate increase in the exports of flour could 
be drawn. It appears plain, however, from what 
has already been stated, that the transportation 
of flottr from the United-States side of the St. 
Laurence to the ports of that river, has beeii 
greatly discouraged, and more particularlj'^ 
by the irregularities which have hitherto ex- 
isted in the mode of furnishing the West-Indian 
market. 

The most effectual means which could be 
adopted, for the encouragement of this trade, 
would be absolutely to prohibit flour from be- 
ing imported from the United States, into onr 
West^Indian settlements ; or otherwise, at all 
times to allow the importation of such flour, 
but in our own ships only, and liable to a duty 
equal to the comparative difference of freight 
and insurance, as might be found operating 
against the importer of produce, into our AVest- 
Indian islands from Canada, as relates to im- 
ports from the ports of the United States, (pro- 
vided such a difference did exist,) with a small 
addition over and above that difference, as a 
protecting duty. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 221 

It may appear to some persons, unacquaint- 
ed with many minute circumstances relating to 
this trade, that the imposition of such a dnty 
might occasion exorbitant prices in our West- 
Indian settlements: but, compared with the 
prices which have hitherto been paid in. these 
settlements, this would certainly not be the 
case. For, it will be observed, from the obser- 
vations ah^eady stated, that the great irregula- 
rities which existed in. the mode of supplying 
these colonies must have raised the prices 
double or treble to what this difterence of 
freight and insurance could, at the highest, be 
possibly estimated. 

In the event of the exportation of this ar- 
ticle from the ports of the St. Laurence be- 
ing unshackled, and such exportations being 
also unrestricted from the ports of the United 
States, otherwise than their carriage being con- 
fined to British ships, and liable to the protect- 
ing duties just mentioned, it is very unlikely 
that the difference could exceed 7s. 6d. per 
barrel; whereas, it appears,. the inhabitants of 
_our West-Indian possessions must have paid at 
the rate of 206*. per barrel higher for their 
flour, than.theprc>pQrtioiiate price at. which the 



222 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

-*'*—-- • ■ - - ,1 -- _>-^'^ -^ ~" - --^^-^ - ■- 

Caiiadians sold their wheat for the British 
market. 

Undoubtedly such measures would soon 
■haVe the effect of furnishing the ports of the St, 
llaurence, with considerably larger supplies 
than the demand of our West-Indian colonies 
would require. 

Whatever, therefore, the price of 'M)ur may 
ha?e been previous to such an effect being pro- 
duced, it is obvious, that it must from that pe- 
riod correspond with and be ruled by the 
prices in the British market. Thus, a short time 
w^ould produce a most important advantage 
to the inhabitants of our West-Indian colonies, 
considering that the price of flour in these set- 
tlements and Great Britain must then as^B^arly 
Correspond as does the expenses of transport- 
ation from Canada to these markets respective- 
ly ; thereby bringing about a reduction of the 
price to these West-Indian colonists, equal to 
the amount of the expense of the transportation 
of flour from Great Britain to the West Indies. 

Secondly, with respect to the further exten- 
sion of agriculture, upon the vast tracts of fer- 
tile land still unsettled in these provinces, it 
may be remarked, that such an extension may 



BRITISH AMERICAN OdLONIES. 5^3 



take place, either by an increase of the propor- 
tionate quantity which the cultivated land bears 
to the population,— by an increase of the popti^ 
lation, or by both. 

The increase ^f the proportionate qtiantity 
of cultivated land t<) the ' population may be 
promoted by the encouragement of the export- 
ation of timber and ashfes^ and also, by a 
steady demand and , encotlraging prices^^ ^fojr 
agricultui-'al produce.- "^^^^ ^-y'^l-i'^^-u /{;:!!;? 

The vast tracts of fertile land to be possess- 
ed at alow rate, and situate in the most healthy 
and agreeable climate, proves highly encourag- 
ing to the increase of th^ population, both by 
multiplication and emigration: indeed, land is 
to be obtained upon such easy ternjs, that the 
poorest man, if he is but industrious, may soon 
acquire a freehold in these fertile provinces. 
Emigrations into Canada are principally from 
the mothfer-country and the United Stiates* 
Notiiing, h6A^5ever, ca4i be said hitherto to ha^i^e 
Encouraged emigration tb Canada, except the 
superiority of the soil. But, so- powerfully lias 
this circumstance operated, that the emigration 
Tphich has prevailed for several years past from 
the United States has been very considerable 



224 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

in(leed. Sacb are the causes, and such have 
been the effects, that, (except in that part 
of the United States bordering upon the 
Canadas,) throughout ahnost the whole extent 
of the eastern states, but particularly New 
England, one may ride for days together with- 
out seeing a spot of what could be properly 
termed good land, — in many parts, hundreds of 
miles without seeing a spot worth cultivating, 
— in many districts, the generality of the peo- 
ple poorly clothed and miserably lodged, and 
here and there the farms deserted, and the farm- 
houses tumbling down ; and, upon inquiring 
concerning them, it will be found their desertion 
was occasioned by emigration either to Canada 
or to those parts of the United States which lie 
upon the banks of the St. Laurence. 

But, upon the other hand, one may travel in 
the Canadas, especially above Quebec, for days 
together, without meeting with any considera- 
ble interruption of the most superior soil; — • 
one may, for hundreds of miles, pass through 
unmterrupted tracts of land of the first rate 
quality, and all over the country find the inha- 
bitants comfortably lodged, well clothed, and 
in every respect enjoying, abundance. It there- 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 225 

fore appears that several of the most important 
circumstances contribute materially to encou- 
rage the settlement of the waste-lands in these 
provinces. 

Thirdly, as to the agricultural improve- 
ments of vrhich the land now under cultivation 
is capable, it may be observed, that it is cer- 
tainly a most important object, and ought, above 
all other improvements, to be attended to. It 
would not only directly augment the exports 
from these colonies, but also afford considerable 
facility to various other most important ad- 
vantages which they possess. 

With respect to the smallness of the crops 
which are here produced, from the very superior 
quality of the soil, and the industry of the 
inhabitants, being circumstances which have 
already been noticed, it appears clear that con- 
siderable improvements in agriculture might be 
easily effected.* 



* The author in making the necessary observations, and in 
collecting such information as he conceived necessary, in wri- 
ting a statistical account of the Canadas, which he has nearly 
ready for publication, necessarily devoted the most particular 
attention to the quality of the soil and the state of agriculture. 
Hehas.therefore,fromthe superior qualityand unimproved state 



226 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

If an increase of four bushels an acre were 
produced, still the crops would be but very 
small; only about 16 or 17 bushels per acre* 

Such an increase, however, w^ould yield 
1,953,852 bushels; which, with the 330,483 
now annually exported, upon an average, would 
make 2,284,335 bushels, being nearly equal 
to double the amount of the supplies of our 
i West-Indian plantation s.f 

Estimating also the small proportion which 
the land under grain bears to the amount 
of cleared land, an increase of the quan- 



of the land, and from his experience and knowledge of the prac- 
tice of husbandry, in some of the best cultivated districts of the 
mother-country, deemed it his duty to write a treatise, shew- 
ing those agricultural improvements, which are most pecu- 
liarly adapted to these provinces, with the most appropriate 
systems of cropping, rules of farm -management, &c. This, 
with some observations upon the best means of overcoming 
the prejudices, which, amongst the Canadians, (as well as 
amongst the people of any other country wherein improve- 
ments, or any change of system, is unknown,) must be found 
to exist against any deviation from their old-established 
practice, are intended to be submitted to the Board of Agri- 
culture, in order to an application being made to the board 
of trade and plantations, in behalf of our interest in the im- 
provement of these extensive and valuable colonies. 

* See page 58. t See No. 6, in the Appendix. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 22T 

tity under grain (if accompanied with ^n 
improvement of agriculture in general) might 
Certainly be made to great advantage. Such 
an increase to the extent of 100,000 acres, 
being only an addition of about one-fifth to the 
quantity computed to be now under grain, and 
about the fiftieth part of the cleared land in 
the Canadas,'* and also supposing it to produce 
only sixteen bushels per acre, would yield 
1,600,000 bushels ; which, with the above 
2,284,335, would make the annual exports 
3,884,335 bushels. 

An improvement to this extent might cer- 
tainly be brought about without much diffi- 
culty, provided the proper means were used 
to effect so desirable an object. 

The circumstances favourable to the improve- 
ment of agriculture in Canada are an excellent 
soil, a favourable climate, a steady demand for 
produce, and that activity, industry, and emu- 
lation, which exist amongst the inhabitants ; 
whilst the only circumstances, which militate 
against such improvements are, the ignorance 
of the Canadian cultivators of the modern 



* See page 56. 

q2 



22B IMI^ORTANCE OF THE 

improvements in agriculture and their attach- 
ment to old-established practices. For nothing 
is more obvious than that industry and emula- 
tion may exist under the greatest ignorance and 
the most obstinate tenacity of the old beaten 
path, as well as under the most successful 
discoveries to which experiment can lead. 

Under such circumstances, it is evident 
that improvements judiciously introduced must 
be attended with the most certain success. 

The difficulty of eradicating the prejudices 
of the Canadian farmers, by introducing agri- 
cultural improvements, would not be greater 
than what would be experienced in the intro- 
duction of any improvement amongst the far- 
mers, or any other class of people, in any 
other country. 

A proof that the people are not altogether 
averse to new experiments, and that they are 
disposed to follow up such practices as they 
may find profitable, is to be found in the circum- 
stance of the introduction of the growth of bar- 
ley, and the cultivation of peas, already noticed. 

The growth of barley was unknown in Ca- 
nada until a few years back, when a gentle- 
tnan, in the prosecution of some speculations 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 229 

in that article, introduced it, and the example 
was almost instantaneously followed. 

The principal difficulty experienced in such 
introductions is in finding individuals amongst 
the older residents disposed to try the experi- 
ment ; but this is a difficulty very far from being 
insurmountable. When once any new dis- 
covery is made, and the improvement adopted 
by only one such individual, and is found profit- 
able, there is no doubt but that it will be ge- 
nerally adopted. For, whatever the neighbours 
of the person who first adopted the improve- 
ment may have formerly thought of such 
projects, or whatever antipathy they may 
have entertained against them, the temp- 
tation of profit and the fear of being consi- 
dered less ingenious than a neighbour, who 
excelled them in nothing else, and whom, 
to esteem, in any respect, superior to them- 
selves would be to them the greatest mortifica- 
tion, would induce them not only to follow his 
example, but would also set their ingenuity to 
work and stimulate them to improve upon his 
principles. 

From the view taken of the improveable ca- 
pabilities of the Canadas, in respect to furnish- 
ing wheat, as well as other agricultural pro- 



230 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

H I ' i M n if » l» « n I ,1. 1 .. .1.. «.,. i»»— — MWKa— — 1 1 i '>i i 

duce, for exportation, it is obvious that these 
hitherto - neglected colonies might, in a very 
short time, be so improved as to yield the most 
extensive supplies. There is, indeed, no doubt 
that, in a few years, under good management, 
they might not only furnish our West-Indian 
settlements with their supply of flour, but 
also the mother-country with all the wheat, 
hemp, and flax, which she requires from foreign 
parts ; unless she should be still determined to 
be dependent upon foreign countries for her 
supplies of these important articles. 



Canada capable of producing hemp and 
flax sufficient for the supply of the 
mother-country with these articles. 

In reference to the question as to how far 
the Canadas are capable of producing a quan- 
tity of hemp and flax sufficient to supply the 
wants of the mother-country, it may be ob- 
served, that, as far as relates to the exte^it and 
quality of the land under cultivation, and also 
their population, they certainly do possess this 
capability. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 231' 

To prove this point, it willbe only necessary 
to notice the circumstances which have pro^ 
moted or retarded the production of flax and 
hemp in these provinces. 

This fundamental cause may be justly traced 
to the extreme ignorance of the Canadians, 
with respect to agriculture in general. 

Upon this cause a variety of others are 
hinged, such as, the reduced state of the land 
in point of fertility ; the defective knowledge 
of the natives^ concerning these crops ; and 
their tenacity of antient habits and established 
practices. Athough these circumstances have 
been already noticed, it is nevertheless neces- 
sary here to make some further observations, 
in order to shew how far these impediments 
are capable of being removed, and to what 
extent they stand in the way of the cultivation 
of hemp and flax in particular. 

Although the exhausted state of the soil is a 
cause which, to a certain degree, operates 
against the cultivation of these crops generally, 
and in particular where combined with certain 
other causes, actually prevents their cultiva- 
tion, yet, under other circumstances, it would 
not by any means prevent their being cultivated 



232 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



to advantage, even to an extent sufficient to 
supply the British market. 

There are certain parts of every farm fit for 
the profitable production of either hemp or 
flax, or both ; and therefore upon the judi- 
cious choice, both in respect to extent and 
situation of the parts chosen for the production 
of these crops, will depend their profitable cul- 
ture ; hence folio v^s the absolute necessity of a 
general knowledge of agriculture. 

The generally reduced state of the land, the 
want of a thorough knowledge of the manage- 
ment of hemp and flax, and a defective know- 
ledge of agriculture in general, are causes 
which, combined, must inevitably prevent the 
profitable cultivation of these crops. For, under 
such circumstances, either an injudicious 
choice may be made of the land destined for 
these crops, or too large a proportion may be 
appropriated to that purpose; and therefore, even 
supposing the farmer by accident to have made 
a proper choice of the land, as to its fitness to 
produce the crops in question, he may never- 
theless so derange his system or mode of crop- 
ping as may occasion considerable loss and 
inconvenience, notwithstanding the hemp and 
flax produced may have been very abundant 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 233 

Where the cultivation of these articles is un- 
dertaken by persons unacquainted with agricul- 
ture in general, notwithstanding they may toler- 
ably well understand the management of hemp 
and flax, such persons are not only likely to fail 
in rendering good crops of them profitable, but, 
from an injudicious choice and improper ma- 
nagement of the land selected for their growth, 
will certainly often meet with a double loss 
and disappointment, by their total failure. 

With respect to popular prejudices against 
new introductions, and a blind adherence to 
established practices, I have already shewn, 
that, were proper means introduced, — such 
means indeed as might be reasonably expected 
to succeed under like circumstances in any 
other country, these prejudices might not only 
be easily overcome, but the improvements 
which they might have given way to woulcj 
certainly be follov/ed up with energy. 

Considering that very good crops of ilax are 
generally produced, but ruined in the manage- 
ment which succeeds the operation of pulling, 
it is therefore evident, that a little well-directed 
attention to this circumstance would meet 
with the most certain success in improving and 
encouraging the cultivation of this crop. And it 



^34 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

is also evident that, besides the direct advantages 
which would be derived from this end being 
accomplished, another important purpose would 
thereby be easily effected, namely, the cultiva- 
tion of hemp; an improvement which, com- 
pared with the cultivation of flax, would prove 
much more profitable to the farmer, and of in- 
finitely greater consequence to the mother- 
country. 

Our annual importation of hemp is about 
250,000 cwt. and of flax about 1 75,000 cwt. 
50,000 acres of land under hemp, at 5 cwt. 
each, and 50,000 acres under flax, at 3f cwt. 
each, would produce these respective quantities. 

The cleared land in the Canadas is esti- 
mated at about 5,002,428 acres f and, sup- 
posing that of the 360,000 inhabitants there are 
only employed in agriculture 300,000, there 
must, in that case, be 50,000 families of six per- 
sons each, employed in husbandry, and 50,000 
farms, averaging about one hundred acres. 

Thus it appears, that if each farmer were to 
sow one acre of hemp and one acre of flax, 
and the crops produced of only the middling 
quality which I have stated, our supplies of 



See page 56. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 235 

these important articles would be obtained 
from our own provinces, and consequently all 
our anxieties about obtaining a precarious 
supply from our enemies relieved ; besides, 
our colonies would be thereby improved, and 
our manufacturers proportionably benefited. 

Every farm is capable of producing either 
hemp or flax; and therefore in proportion as 
any particular farm might be found more 
adapted to the production of any one of these 
articles, respect should be paid to that circum- 
stance, either with regard to the respective 
proportions of these crops, or an absolute 
preference given to the one considered the 
most profitable: there are, however, but very 
few instances where the land is not capable of 
profitably producing both. 

But supposing that only two-thirds of the 
farmers were to sow hemp and flax, in that 
case were each to sow one acre and an half 
of hemp and the same quantity of flax, the 
whole of our supplies would thereby be pro- 
duced. Or further, to suppose that only half 
the number of farmers as above were to culti- 
vate these crops, still our supplies would be 
produced by each only cultivatmg two acres of 
hemp and two acres of flax. 



230 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



CHAP. V. 



CONCLUSION. 



From what has been advanced concerning 
the importance of the colonies which we pos- 
sess in North America, and the danger in 
which they are placed by the present war, it is 
evident they are, in the highest degree, en- 
titled to our protection. — Compared with any 
of our other colonial establishments, — with our 
colonies in the West Indies,— ^ with our colonies 
in the East Indies, — or with our Mediterranean 
establishments, and estimated by the propor- 
tionate quantity of our shipping they employ, 
I have shevm that they rank the highest :* — 
if valued by the present proportionate amount, 
and the sure prospect of future increase of the 
demand and facility they afford us for vending 
our manufactures : it is clearly demonstrated that 
they have decidedly the precedence.f — Should 

* Appendix, Nos, 8 and 17. t No. 2. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 237 

they be estimated according to the loyalty of 
their inhabitants ; — recent occurrences and the 
uniform conduct of these brave people prove 
that they are second to no colonies that Great 
Britain now has or ever did possess. Possess- 
ing then these important properties, in such a 
pre-eminent degree, are they not entitled to a 
proportionate degree of our care and attention, 
and a commensurate share of those means 
which we possess, for the protection of our 
colonies in general ? 

Perhaps some may be scarcely inclined to ad- 
mit that these colonies are actually in danger. 
I would, however, most earnestly remind such 
persons, that the loss of our colonies, in the last 
American war, was occasioned solely by the 
extravagant contempt which we entertained of 
the strength of the Americans as an enemy, — 
by the inadequacy of the forces sent out, and, 
more especially, to the tardy and apparently re- 
luctant manner in which they were furnished. 

Instead of a respectable force being sent at 
once, such as might have been deemed suf- 
ficient to destroy and disperse this enemy, 
whose power we then held in so much con- 
tempt, our troops were sent out in handfuls, — st 



238 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

few al a time ; and, when these were destroyed, 
a few more; and so on, to the end of the war, 
which, as might have been expected, brought 
with it the loss of our valuable colonies, and 
our humiliation and disgrace before this other- 
wise contemptible enemy. 

And what but the same spirit of infatuation 
could have so long delayed sending a military 
force to Canada, after the declaration of the 
present war against us by the United States ? 
What but the same lethargy, and blind insensi- 
bility to danger, which occasioned the loss of our 
colonies at that time, could have so long with- 
held the trifling and inadequate supply of troops 
which havebeen hitherto sent to these provinces ? 
Indeed, it is notorious that our government, in 
sending out these small supplies, have allowed 
our enemy full time to prepare for their recep- 
tion, and in every respect appear determined 
to carry on this war a la North and Gage. 

The danger of the Canadas consists chiefly 
in their small population being disposed along 
an immense extent of the frontier of a populous 
hostile coimtry. — Their safety consists, in the 
first place, in the combined circumstances of the 
river St, Laurence, and the strong garrison of 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 239 

Qutbec being the key to the country, and of our 
fleets being uble to command the navigation of 
the St. Laurence ; in the second place, in the 
loyalty of their inhabitants^ and the firm attach- 
ment of the Indians to the British interest ; and, 
in the third place, in the aid of a British army. 

With respect to the first of these defensive 
properties, viz. the strength of the garrison of 
Quebec, and the power which we possess of 
commanding the navigation of the river St, 
Laurence, it may be observed, that, although 
these are certainly valuable properties, yet, 
unattended by the other two, they would 
be found comparatively of little avail. For, 
were the Americans in possession of the 
country, and the Canadians indifferent to our 
interests, and we in possession of the river St. 
Laurence, notwithstanding that that river is, 
and necessarily must be, the channel of com- 
merce to the extensive country upon its waters ; 
yet we should, in that case, be only so far in 
possession of the Canadas, by merely holding 
the St. Laurence, as we should be in posses- 
sion of the Russian empire, by having the com* 
mand of the mouths of the Baltic and Black Sea. 

The command which the possession of the 



240 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

garrison of Quebec and the river St. Lau- 
rence has over the Canadas are valuable ad* 
vantages, and certainly of vast importance: 
but they are only to the possession of the Ca« 
nadas, as the capital is to the kingdom, or as 
the citadel to the city. In the defence of the 
country, they are strong and important posi- 
tions ; but to rest the safety of our possession 
of the country, in any considerable degree, 
upon them, would be little better than volun- 
tarily resigning it to the enemy. 

Our government, however, must have trusted 
the safety of these provinces principally to these 
circumstances, otherwise they would have been 
more prompt in furnishing the means of de- 
fending them at the commencement of hosti- 
lities, and, at this moment, would have had a 
much greater force in that country. 

Regarding the loyalty of the Canadians, and 
their attachment to their parent-country, they 
are certainly of vast importance in the defence 
of these colonies. If proofs of this were want- 
ing, let us look back to the late American war,, 
and witness their zeal and enthusiasm in the 
British cause in the present struggle. The Ga- 
nadas, consisting as yet but of a small popu- 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIEf. 241 

Jation, and extended along the American fron- 
tier, and, consequently, exposed to an enemy 
of immensely superior strength in point of 
numerical proportion, are, therefore, however 
unshaken their zeal and undaunted their cou- 
rage, inadequate to the defence of these colonies. 
With a reasonable supply of troops from the 
mother-country, however, — even with half the 
number to which the importance of these pos- 
sessions entitle them, which would be at least 
double the force which is there at present, they 
would be safe beyond all doubt or apprehension. 
The firm attachment of the Indians to our 
interest is a circumstance which adds greatly 
to our means of defending and securing our 
Canadian possessions ; and, indeed, consti- 
tutes the principal means of our holding these 
colonies. It may be, therefore, necessary to. 
take notice of the circumstances to which we 
owe this important alliance. For we must not 
suppose that the Indians esteem us merely be- 
cause we are British, nor hate and despise our 
enemies in that quarter merely because they 
are Americans ; they, as well as civilized na- 
tions, must have more potent reasons, and 
more stimulating motives, for their friendship. 

R 



?42 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

The friendly alliance of the Indians is de- 
rived from various causes : — in the first place, 
from the American encroachments upon their 
rights and privileges ; in the second place, 
from the good-zvill of the frontier nations, pur- 
chased by the presents annually made them by 
our government ; and, in the third place, from 
an extensive intercowse which has been culti- 
vated with them, almost over the xvhole northern 
continent of America, by our fur-traders. 

With regard to the first of these causes ; the 
rapid progress which the settlements of the 
United States has made towards the interior 
upon all sides, and the little ceremony ob- 
served by the Americans in obtaining posses- 
sion of their new territory, has produced 
several wars between the Americans and the 
Indians, and thereby created and kept up in 
the Indian breast a constant rancour and an- 
tipathy towards these intruders. 

Our government, upon the other hand, has 
carefully avoided the smallest misunderstand- 
ing with them upon the score of territorial right ; 
and, likewise^ studiously courted and secured 
their friendship by an annual distribution of 
presents to the mtions inhabiting the frontiers. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 243 

■I ■ ■ ' J I - . . ,. . I ' i ■ ■ I I I II I III 

Our fur-trade with the Indians, however, 
has certainly done infinitely more towards se- 
curing their friendship than all the other causes 
jointly considered. 

This trade is principally carried on by a 
company of merchants, consisting of several 
establishments, but generally styled the North- 
West Company. 

The concerns of this house have been so 
organized, and their plans and schemes of 
operation conducted upon such an extensive 
scale as to have extended their trade over a 
very large proportion of the continent of North 
America ; even from the coast of Labradore 
nearly to the Pacific Ocean ; and from the vi- 
cinity of Lousiana, almost to the Frozen Sea, 
which bounds the continent upon the North. 

The trade carried on by this company with 
the Indians has been so industriously prosecuted 
and judiciously and honourably conducted as to 
have rendered it not only extremely profitable, 
but highly honourable to the company, from 
their having thereby secured to the British na- 
tion the friendly disposition of all the Indian 
nations, to whom their commercial intercourse 
has extended. For, in all their intercourse 

r2 



244 IMPORTANCE OF THE 



with these savages, they have not only avoided 
quarrels, but have universally commanded re- 
spect, and secured the friendship and esteem 
of that uncultivated and war-like race, both 
for themselves and the British in general. 

It is evident, therefore, that it is to this mer- 
cantile establishment that we are indebted for 
the cordial co-operation of the Indians against 
the Americans. 

Considering that it was in a great measure 
from our Indian alliance, during the last Ame- 
rican war, that we secured the Canadas at its 
termination, it may therefore be fairly conclu- 
ded that it is, in some degree, to the honour- 
able principles upon which our fur-trade has 
been carried oo, that we are indebted for the 
possession of the Canadas at the present day. 

Indeed, our Indian alliance would, had it 
not been from the most culpable ignorance of 
our negotiators, have then secured to us what 
now constitutes the richest and best portion of 
all that part of the United States, which lies 
east of the Allegany moantains, viz.-^that vast 
fertile country, situated upon the south side of 
the St. Laurence and the lakes, to the head- 
waters of the rivers which empty themselves 
into the St. Laurence and its chain of lakes. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 245 

■laaaNaBBHaHaaBiBBBaaaitaaBiSi^aMMaHBBEaBaaaBaaii^HBaBB^Hii^BMaeaaaMaBaMi^aBain 

But so miserably deficient, in point of in- 
formation, were our negotiating magi upon this 
occasion, that they appeared blind to their 
countries' rights, in respect to the protection 
of this most valuable branch of British com- 
merce, (the fur-trade,) and ignorant that our 
faithful Indian allies had any interests, entitled 
to our notice, in this treaty ; otherwise they 
never would have ceded to the Americans that 
very country, of which these allies were then 
in possession, — in which the Americans had 
literally not a soldier in arms, — they would 
have never given up that fine country upon the 
south banks of the St. Laurence and its lakes, 
thereby wresting from these friendly Indians 
(who had already suffered so much in our 
cause,) their paternal inheritance; — driving 
them, by this disgraceful treaty, from their an- 
tient possessions, of which the hostile armies 
of America could not dispossess them. — 

They must have been totally ignorant 
that there was any thing respecting the fur- 
trade worthy of attention, or even that there 
existed any such branch of industry in British 
commerce, otherwise they would not have 
ceded the forts or posts of Michilimakinac, 



246 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

Detroit, Niagara, &c. and, allowed the 
boundary line to reach the middle of the 
St. Laurence and the lakes, thereby, in a 
great measure, shutting up the door of acr 
cess to the fur-trade against us. Indeed, 
they appear to have entered into negotia- 
tion with our rebel-colonists, with a deter- 
mination to insist upon nothing that was con^ 
tended for by that party ; for, being in posses- 
sion of the whole country, upon the south side 
of the St. Laurence and the lakes, as well as 
upon the north side, and, as I have already 
mentioned, holding the forts of Niagara, De- 
troit, and Michilimakinac, who could have sup- 
posed that there were to be found British nego- 
tiators so very ignorant as to have given up all 
that extensive country. 

The settlements of the State of Main had 
not then reached farther to the eastward (be- 
ing towards New Brunswick) than the riv^r 
Penobscot. 

That river, therefore, ought to have been 
the boundary between the United States and 
New Brunswick ; and, upon the Canadian 
side, the boundary line ought to have run from 
lake Kersisango to the head of lake Champ- 



BRITISH AMERICAN PROVINCES. 247 

lain ; from thence to a point about equal dis- 
tances, between lake Erie and the river Ohio, 
at Pittsburg ; and, from thence, to the west- 
ward, in that parallel of latitude. 

Such a boundary line would have secured 
us the free and uninterrupted navigation of the 
St. Laurence and the lakes, and the possession 
of one of the finest and most fertile countries in 
the world. The cession of this country, then 
in our possession, without an equivalent, gla- 
ring and unaccountable as that sacrifice was, 
was rendered still more culpable by our being 
then, as already observed, .in possession of 
New York and Rhode Island, both which, 
with this fine country, were given up by the 
ministers of that day. ' 

My reason for taking so particular notice of 
these gross mistakes, which were committed in 
negotiating the last peace with America, is in- 
tended for the double purpose of stimulating 
to adequate exertions, for regaining that w hich 
we so foolishly, and with so much simplicity, 
gave away : — and to remind our ministers, that 
America actually gamed nearly as much terri- 
tory by negotiation, at the end of the late war, 
as she did by a bloody contest of seven ycars^ 



248 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

that they may, when they come to negotiate, 
endeavour to regain what has been so wantonly 
and foolishly thrown away. 



Respecting the impolicy, of which the 
British government has been guilty, in suffer- 
ing the Americans to take possession of Loui- 
siana, but particularly the latter, it may be 
remarked that this acquisition of the United- 
States government was not merely a territorial 
extent, — not a forest, the settlement of which 
would be a work of ages, but an immense aug- 
mentation to their population, — a country, in 
every respect, superior to any they ever before 
possessed ; and in this point of view it was 
considered by one of the most subtle politi- 
cians, who organized the immense power of 
Buonaparte, — Talleyrand, whose opinions of 
the importance of these colonies, and the fer- 
tility of the country, on the banks of what he 
terms the Nile of America, may be seen, from 
the following extracts, from a pamphlet, writ- 
ten by him at the period when Buonaparte was 
first consul. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 249 

" ^ Our nation had the vain honour of confer- 
ring a name on a portion of the globe, not ex- 
ceeded by any other portion of it, in all the 
advantages of climate and soil. Before the war 
of 1757, it was an immense valley, watered by 
a deep and beneficent river. This river first 
acquires importance in the latitude of forty-five, 
north. It flows in a devious comse about two 
thousand miles, and enters the bay of Mexico, 
by many mouths, in latitude 29. In these lati- 
tudes is comprised the temperate zone, which 
has been always deemed most favourable to the 
perfection of the animal and vegetable nature. 
This advantage is not marred by the chilling 
and sterilifying influence of lofty mountains, 
the pestilential fumes of intractable bogs, or the 
dreary uniformity of sandy plains. Through 
the whole extent, there is not, probably, a 
snow-capt hill, a moving sand, or a volcanic 
eminence. 

" This valley is of different breadths. The 
ridge which bounds it on the east is in some 
places near a thousand miles from the great 



* From the New Quarterly Review, No. b. 



250 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

middle stream. From this ridge, secondary 
rivers, of great extent and magnificence/ flow 
towards the centre, and the intermediate re- 
gions are an uncaltiyated Paradise. On the 
west, the valley is of similar dimensions, the 
streams are equally large and useful, and the 
condition of the surface equally delightful. 

"i We must first observe, that, in gaining pos- 
session of this territory, we shall not enter on a 
desert, where the forest must be first removed 
before a shelter can be built ; whither we must 
carry the corn and the clothes necessary to pre- 
sent subsistence ; and the seed, the tools, and 
the cattle, which are requisite to raise a future 
provision. 

" There cannot, in the first place, be ima- 
gined a district more favourable to settlement. 
In addition to a genial climate and soil, there 
are the utmost facilities of communication and 
commerce. The whole district is the sloping 
side of a valley, through which run deep and 
navigable rivers, which begin their course in 
the remotest borders, and which all terminate 
in the central stream. This stream, one of the 
longest and widest in the world, is remarkably 
distinguished by its depth, and freedom from 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 251 

mmmmmmmmmmummmmmmmmmimimmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm^mmHl 

natural impediiuents. It flows into a gulf 
which contains a great number of populous 
islands. Among these islands are numerous 
passages into the ocean, which washes the 
shores of Europe. Thus, not only every part 
of the district is easily accessible by means of 
rivers, but the same channels are ready to con- 
vey the products of every quarter to the 
markets most contiguous and most remote. 

" The Nile flows in a torrid climate through 
Br long and narrow valley. The fertility which 
its annual inundations produce extends only 
two or three leagues on either side of it. The 
benefits of this fertility are marred by the 
neighbourhood of scorching sands, over which 
the gales carry intolerable heat and incurable 
pestilence, and which harbour a race of sa- 
vages, whose trade is war and pillage. Does 
this river bestow riches worthy of the greatest 
efforts of the nation to gain them, and shall 
the greater Nile of the western hemisphere be 
neglected ? A Nile, w^hose inundations diffuse 
the fertility of Egypt twenty leagues from its 
shores, which occupies a valley wider than 
from the Duna to the Rhine, which flows 
among the most beautiful dales, and under the 



252 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

^ LJ \ ■.■■:■■ ^ ^^-^ -^ ^ ^ II I III I I 111 I'l I IIMl' III' 

benignest seasons, and which is skirted by a 
civilized and kindred nation on one side, and 
on the other by extensive regions, over which 
the tide of growing population may spread it- 
self without hindrance or danger. 

" Bat of what avail will be all these advan- 
tages, unless a market be provided for the pro- 
duce of the soil ? Now this market is already 
provided. For all that it can produce, France 
alone will supply thirti/ millions of consumers. 
The choicest luxuries of Europe are coffee, 
sugar, and tobacco. The most useful mate- 
rials of clothing are cotton and silk. All these 
are either natives of the Mississippi valley, or 
remarkably congenial to it. The cultivation of 
these, and the carriage to market, are as ob- 
vious and easy as the most ardent politician 
can desire. The whole extent of the river will 
be our own, and in the lower and most fertile 
portion of its course, the banks on both sides 
will be our indisputable property. 

" The friend of the health, longevity, and 
useful pleasure of the human species, and of 
the opulence of France, could not devise a 
better scheme than one which should enable 
every inhabitant of Europe to consume half a- 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 253 

pound of sugar a day, and assign to French- 
men the growth, the carriage, and the distri- 
bution of thus much.* Now this scheme is no 
other than the possession of the American 
Nile. But this end may be too magnificent to 
be deemed credible. Let us, then, confine our- 
selves to the consumption of France ; for this 
alone will be adequate to the employment, and 
conducive to the wealth, of a vast number of 
cultivators. 

" A much less beneficial luxury is coffee, 
but this our habits have equally endeared to us. 
We have hitherto drawn it from the same foun- 
tain which has supplied us with sugar: the 
trade in it must follow the same destiny, the 
same benefits will flow from increasing the 
suppl}^, and from drawing the supply from the 
valley of the Mississippi. 

" I shall pass over, without mentioning, many 
other articles, such as tobacco, indigo, and the 
like, for which France and the rest of Europe 



* 225,000,000 cwt. the produce of an area, not exceed- 
ing that of Guienne, Normandy, and Britanny, are not a 
twentieth part of the valley of the Mississippi, — ^Trans^ 

LATOR. 



854 IMPORTANCE OF tHE 

will supply an unlimited consumption, and 
hasten to articles which are of more import- 
ance, and these are cotton and provisions. 

" The most beautiful production of nature is 
cotton. It was more than the caprice of fashion 
that went to the extremities of the East in 
search of this material, for there is none capa- 
ble of a greater number of uses, of so many 
forms, and such various colours. Its texture 
may constitute the lightest and most beautiful 
of ornaments, or the best defence against 
the intemperature of the air. 

" The nations of the East have used it im- 
memorially, and from them has it gradually 
been brought to Europe. The use of it seems 
to have been limited by nothing but the power 
of procuring it. Like sugar, the use of it has 
increased since it has been naturalized to the 
soil of America. The consumption has, in 
like manner, been eager to outrun the supply. 

" The American States ha'oe, of late, become 
sensible of the "oalue of the commerce in cotton^ 
and their success supplies us with a new ex- 
ample, and a powerful inducement to appro- 
priate, in part, the territory of the Mississippi 
to the same culture. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 25!ir 

** But now come the fearful and scrupulous 
head to dash these charming prospects. Ob- 
stacles to these great achievements multiply ia 
his timorous fancy. He expatiates on the 
length of the way ; the insalubrity of unculti- 
vated lands ; of a climate to which the consti- 
tution and habits of the colonists are unconge- 
nial ; of a soil, part of which, and that acces- 
sible and most valuable, lies under a torrid 
§un, and is annually inundated, 

" Now all these difficulties are imaginary. 
They are real in relation to a Jirst settlement. 
They ought to be taken into strict account, tf 
our projects extended to New Holland or to 
California. In all real cases, these difficulties 
have been great by reason of the avarice, in- 
justice, and folly, of the colonizing nation ; and 
the wisest plans could not totally exclude, 
though they would greatly lessen and easily 
surmount them. But Louisiana is not a new 
settlement : It is one of the oldest in North 
America. Ail the labours of discovering and 
of setting the first foot on a desert shore, were 
suffered and accomplished long ago. 

** The Spaniards must be thoroughly aware 
that their power in Mexico and Peru exists by 



^56 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

the weakness and division of their vassals, and 
by the remoteness and competition of their 
European enemies. Unwise and imbecile as 
that nation has generally appeared in latter 
times, the admission of the French to a post 
from whence their dominions may be so easily 
annoyed at present, and from which their fu- 
ture expulsion is inevitable, is a folly too egre- 
gious even for them to commit, and of which 
the most infatuated of their counsels has not 
hitherto given an example. 

" If Spain should refuse the cession, there is 
an end to our golden viexvs. Our empire in the 
new world is strangled in its cradle ; or, at 
least, the prosecution of our scheme must wait 
for a more propitious season. But, should the 
fortune of our great leader continue her smiles ; 
should our neighbour be trepanned or intimi- 
dated into this concession, there is removed, 
indeed, one obstacle, of itself insuperable ; but 
only to give way to another, at least, equally 
hard to subdue ; and that is, the opposition of 
England, 

*' That nation justly regards us as the most 
formidable enemy to her greatness. Of late, 
if her pride would confess the truth, she would 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 257 

acknowledge that not her greatness only, but her 
very being was endangered, either by the influ- 
ence of our arms, or the contagion of our ex- 
ample. She w^as assailed in her vitals, as the 
confusions of Ireland will testify. She was 
attacked in her extremities, as the expedition 
to Egypt, a mere prelude to the conquest of 
Hindostan, will prove. Her efforts to repel 
both these attacks, were suitable to their import- 
ance, and evince the magnitude of her fears. 
The possession of the vantage-ground enabled 
her to crush the Irish. Her naval supe- 
riority, and the caprice of the winds, en- 
abled her to check our victorious career in the 
east. 

" Will they suffer France to possess herself 
of the most effiectual means of prosecuting fu- 
ture wars to a different issue? Their navy 
and their commerce are, at present, all 
their trust. France may add Italy and Ger- 
many to her dominions with less detriment 
to England than would follow from her ac- 
quisition of a navy, and the extension of her 
trade. Whatever gives colonies to France, 
supplies her with ships and sailors ; raanufa^^ 

s 



258 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

tiires and husbandQieii. Victories by land can 
only give lier mwtmous subjects ; who, instead 
of angnienting the national force, by their riches 
or numbers, contribute only to disperse and en- 
feeble that force ; but the growth of colonies 
suj3plies her with zealous citizens, and the 
increase of real wealth and effective numbers is 
the certain consequence. 

'' What could Germany, Italy, Spain, and 
France, combining their strength, perform 
against England ? They might assemble in 
millions on the shores of the channel, but there 
would be the limit of their enmitv. Without 
ships to carry them over ; without experienced 
mariners to navigate these ships, England 
would only deride the pompous preparation^ 
The moment we leave the shore her fleets are 
ready to pounce upon us ; to disperse and 
destroy our ineffectual armaments. There lies 
their security : in their insular situation and 
their navy consist their impregnable defence. 
Their navy is, in every respect, the offspring of 
their trade. To rob them of that, therefore, is 
to beat down their last wall and fill up their 
last moat. To gain it to ourselves, is to enable 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 259 



US to take advantage of their deserted and de- 
fenceless borders, and to complete the humi- 
liation of our only remaining competitor. 

" The trade which enriches England lies 
chiefly in the products of foreign climates. But 
her Indian territories produce nothing which the 
Mississippi could not as easily produce. The 
Ganges fertilizes a valley less extensive. Its 
Deltas, as well as those of the Nile, are in the 
same latitudes, and these rivers generate the 
same exuberant soil, only in smaller space and 
in less quantities than the great western Nile : 
but the Mississippi comprehends, in its bosom, 
the regions of the temperate zone as well as 
the tropical climates and products. The arc- 
tic circle in America will be equally accessible 
to us and to the English.. Our antient posses- 
sions in Canada xvill in due season return to us 
of their oxvn accord ; and, meanwhile, a double 
portion of anxiety, and double provision of 
forts and garrisons, will fall to the lot of the 
usurping English. The progress of the French 
will expose their islands, first to be excluded 
from the markets of Europe, and next to be 
swallowed up by military power. At present, 
the protector and the enemy are at an equal 

s 2 



260 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

— ' ■' ■ I I i 1, I .i mmim''- 

distance ; but then there will OBly be a narrow 
frith between the Mississippi and the isles, be- 
tween the invaders and the objects they covet, 
while the defenders would be, as now, afar 
off; neither apprised of our designs nor able 
to defeat them. 

** This nation could not bury itself in a more 
inaccessible fortress than this valley. The 
months of this river, as to all attacks by sea, 
are better than the bastions of Malta. All 
around the entrance is impassable to men and 
horses, and the great channel is already har- 
ried by forts, easily extended and improved. 
A wise policy would teach the English to di- 
vert our attention from this quarter, by the sa- 
crifice of Valetta or Gibraltar. 

*' Can we imagine the English so vigilant, so 
prudent in all affairs connected with their ma- 
ritime empire ; so quick in their suspicions ; 
so prompt in their precautions ; can be blind to 
the dangers v/iih. which this cession xvill menace 
them? No defeats or humiliations, short of 
their island, will make them acquiesce in such 
arrangements. 

" It is contrary to all probability that either 
Spain or England will be tractable on this oc- 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 261 

casioii ; but, if the danger, by being distant, is 
invisible to them; or if the present evils, arising 
to England from continuance of the war, or to 
Spain from the resentment of the French go- 
vernment, should outweigh, in their appre- 
hensions, all future evils, and prevail on one 
to grant, and on the other to connive at the 
grant, by what arguments, by what promises, 
by what threats, by what hostile efforts, shall 
we extort the consent of the American States? 
How shall we prevail on them to alienate the 
most valuable portion of their territory ; to ad- 
on'it into their vitals a formidable and active peo- 
ple, whose interests are incompatible, in every 
point, xvith their own; xvhose enterprises will 
inevitably interfere and jar xvith theirs; whose 
neighbourhood zvill cramp all their movements ; 
circumscribe their future progress to narroxv 
and ignominious bounds j and make incessant in- 
roads on their harmony and independence ? 

"- Long ago would the lesser princes of Italy 
and Germany have disappeared, if Sweden, 
France, Prussia, and Austria, had not stood 
ready to snatch the spoil from each other. 
Long ago would the Turkish robbers have 
been driven back to their native deserts, if any 



262 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

single nation of Europe had been suffered by 
the rest to execute that easy task. But the 
Spaniards know that Spain and America must 
one day fall asunder. Why then should they 
decline a present benefit, in order to preclude 
one means of an event, which yet, by other 
means, if not by these, will inevitably hap- 
pen? 

" As to England, all the disadvantages with 
which this event is said to menace them are 
real. All the consequences just predicted to 
her colonies, to her trade, to her navy, to her 
ultimate existence, will indisputably follow. 
The scheme is eligible to us chiefly on this account, 
and these consequences, if they rouse the 
English to a sturdier opposition, ought like- 
wise to stimulate the French to more strenuous 
perseverance. 

* • But, in truth, every Frenchman must laugh 
with scorn at the thought of British opposition. 
What would the Spaniards say, were they told 
by the English — You must not give away this 
colony. Though a great incumbrance to you, 
and a great benefit to those whom it is your 
interest and duty to oblige, you must, by no 
means, part with it. What patience, either 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 2(j3 

in France or JSpain, would tolerate an inter- 
ference thus haughty, from an enemy to both? 
But when is this opposition to be made? This 
is not a subject of debate between the agents 
of England and France. It falls not under 
their discussion It cannot, therefore, be the 
occasion of their interviews. There is no room 
for opposition to what comes not under our 
notice. The cession must be made without 
their knowledge. It is only to be published by 
its execution, and when the French are safely 
lodged in the Mississippi, the gainsayings of 
the English will be too late, 

'^ But there is a nearer, and, it must be own- 
ed, a more formidable, nation to gain. If 
there be any truth in the picture heretofore 
drawn, of the value of this province to France, 
it must be, in .a still greater proportion, of 
value to the American States. If the powers 
of this rising nation were intrusted to the hands 
of one wise man ; if the founder of the nation 
was still its supreme magistrate, and he had no 
wills to consult but his oxvn, the French, most 
probably, would never be allowed to set their 
foot on that shore ; but the truth, the desirable 
truth, is, that opposition is the least to be 



264 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

dreaded from those who have most reason to 
oppose us. They, whose interests are most 
manifest, may be most easily deceived : whose 
danger is most imminent, may most easily be 
lulled into security. They, whose vicinity tq 
the scene of action puis it most in their power 
to enact their own safety ; whose military force 
might be most easily assembled and directed to 
this end, we shall have the least trouble in di- 
viding, intimidating, and disarming. 

" I come now to the last difficulty, which 
the most scrupulous objector has discovered ; 
and this difficulty will be dissipated with more 
ease than the rest. On what foundation does it 
repose^ hut the visionary notion, that the con- 
duct of nations is governed by enlightened views 
to their own interest ? The rulers of nations 
have views of their own, and they are gained 
by the gratification of these private views. The 
more individuals there are that govern, and the 
more various their conditions and their charac- 
ter, the more dissimilar are their interests, and 
the more repugnant these interests to those of 
each other, and the interests of the whole. 

" Was there ever a people who exhibited so 
motley a character ; who have vested a more 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 265 

limited and precarious authority in their rulers ; 
who have multiplied so much the numbers of 
those that govern ; who have dispersed them- 
selves over so w ide a space ; and have been led, 
by this local dispersion, to create so many 
clashing jurisdictions and jarring interests, as 
the States of America? 

'' They call themselves free, yet a fifth of 
their number are slaves. That proportion of 
the whole people are ground by a yoke more 
dreadful and debasing than the predial servi- 
tude of Poland and Russia. They call them- 
selves one, yet all languages are native to their 
citizens. All countries have contributed their 
outcasts and refuse to make them a people. 
Even the race of Africa, a race not above, or 
only just above, the beasts, are scattered every 
where among them, and in some of the dis- 
tricts of their empire, are nearly a moiety of 
the whole. 

" Such is the people whom we, it seems, are 
to fear, because their true interest would make 
them our enemies ; with whom we are to con- 
tend in negotiation, or, if need be, in arms! 
We, who are as much a proverb for our skill 
in diplomatics as in war; who have all the 



266 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

unity in counsels ; the celerity in execution ; 
the harmony of interests ; the wisdom of ex- 
perience ; and the force of compactness, of 
Avhich this patchwork republic is notoriously 
destitute. Their numbers ! That, when the 
parts are discordant, is only fuel more easily 
kindled, and producing a more extensive and 
unquenchable flame. Five millions of jarring' 
and factious citizens are far less formidable 
than a disciplined and veteran legion of as 
many thousands. 

** But the great weakness of these States 
arises from their form of government, and the 
condition and the habits of the people. Their 
form of government, and the state of the 
country, is a hot -bed for faction and sedi- 
tion. The utmost force of all the wisdom they 
possess is exerted in keeping the hostile parts 
together. These parts are unlike each other, 
and each one has the individualizing preju- 
dices of a separate state ; all the puerile jea- 
lousies of the greatness of others ; all the 
petty animosities which make neighbours quar- 
rel with each other without cause. How slight 
an additional infusion is requisite to set this 
heterogeneous mass into commotion ? to make 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 267 

the different parts incline different ways, on 
the great question of war ? 

** 21ie master of the Mississippi will be 
placed so as to controul, in the nnost effectual 
manner, these internal waves. It is acknow- 
ledged that he holds in his hands the bread of 
all the settlements westward of the hills. He 
may dispense or withhold at his pleasure. 
See we not the mighty influence that this 
power will give us over the councils of the 
States?" 

From the above extracts we learn the impor- 
tance of which our enemy considered this terri- 
tory ; whether looked at as a valuable acqui- 
sition in point of produce or the means of fu- 
ture annoyance.— How then is it possible to 
account for that infatuated blindness which 
could tamely permit the fradulent transfer of 
so valuable a province. 

The inhabitants of this extensive, populous, 
and fertile country, hated the Americans, and 
would have been glad to have been placed 
under our protection. Our government, how- 
ever, tamely looked on, whilst the United States 
took possession of this fine country in trust 



268 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

for Buonaparte ; being the first step of a pro- 
ject concerted between the American govern- 
ment and this Corsican tyrant, for wresting the 
Canadas from us. 

Passing over, however, all former transac- 
tions, now is the time to rectify at once all for- 
mer mistakes, by taking immediate possession 
of this desirable country. Its own intrinsic 
value renders it infinitely more than equal to 
balance every expense of such an undertaking, 
even were the cost more than ten times the 
amount which probability may indicate. 

Its value to ns is greatly enhanced by its 
contiguity to our West-Indian possessions, — by 
the favourable disposition of the people towards 
us, — by its being the key to the rich and fertile 
plains upon the rivers Mississippi and Ohio, — 
by the door which it would open to the intro- 
duction of our manufactures into one of the 
most populous and richest of all the Spanish 
colonies, (Mexico,) — and, by the command it 
would give us over the United States. 

The possession of this territory would be, 
to use Talleyrand's expression, ** a rein by 
" which the fury of the States may be held at 
*' pleasure." The Indians to the northward, 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 269 

being already devoted to our interest, the pos- 
session of this country would place the 
Indian force of almost the whole continent of 
North America at our disposal. Thus should 
we be enabled, at all times, to keep the United 
States in check, almost without the aid of Bri- 
tish troops. 

In a commercial point of view, the acquisi- 
tion of this territory would be of immense im- 
portance. It would, at all times, secure to us 
an opportunity of' supplying the southern and 
western parts of the UniteJ States with our 
manufactures. And the Canadas, also, afford- 
ing us the like privilege upon her northern 
frontiers, we should thereby have, at all times, 
secured to us a door of ready access to one of 
the most valuable fields of British commerce. 

The possession of all these colonies would 
render the whole border of the United State* 
a permanent channel, which the American go- 
vernment never could prevent from being the 
means of vending our manufactures throughout 
the interior of her country, even whatever her 
disposition might be in this respect. 

The produce of Louisiana is lumber, wheat, 
rice, Indian corn, provisions, cotton, indigo, 
tobacco, &c. 



270 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

These are articles of great importance, both to 
ourWest-Indiaii inlands, and the mother-country. 
The carriage of the produce of that country 
would also be of great importance to our ship- 
ping-interest : the additional employment it 
would afford our ships would be imuiense. 

In fact, such an acquisition would be advan- 
tageous to all parties ; to the mother-country, 
by opening a new and extensive market for her 
manufacture,^ — by securing to her an immeuse 
augmentation to the employ of her shipping, 
besides insuring her, both in peace and in war, 
an abundant supply of several articles of the 
greatest importance. — The possession of this 
territory would not only secure to our West- 
Indian possessions an abundant and regular 
supply of every article of American produce ; 
but, in time of war, would, in many respects, 
prove a protection and defence to them. 

And, what is most important, the many ad- 
vantages which the inhabitants of Louisiana 
would derive from our being in the possession 
of it, would undoubtedly secure their firm at- 
tachment to our interest. — The act of our 
taking possession would be the immediate re- 
mission of many heavy duties to which they 
are now liablcj and the hnmediate opening of 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 271 

a market for their produce ; whilst the produce 
of the United States would continue blockaded 
in their ports. There is no doubt but that these 
advantages, coupled with the hatred which the 
inhabitants of that country bear to the Ameri- 
cans, would render its possession at once secure. 



From the view which has been taken of our 
provinces in America, particularly the Canadas, 
it is evident, that amidst the various important 
concerns which at present interest the British na- 
tion, those matters respecting her colonies in that 
quarter form a subject of the first importance. 

Although these possessions have for many 
years almost escaped her notice, yet the mag- 
nitude of their vast and neglected resources, in- 
capable of longer concealment, have at length at- 
tracted attention, and now exhibit an inexhaus- 
tible mine of wealth. — They present a permanent 
source of maritime facilities and naval strength, 
which to any nation would be of the greatest im- 
portance. In the possession of the United States,* 



* The Americans, being allowed to catch fish all round the 
coast of these colonies, and encouraged to sell them in our 
West-Indian islands, may be said to have been already actually 



272 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

they would soon raise her to the highest rank of 
maritime power. — With the privileges of the 
British ship-owner sacrificed to America to the 
same extent they have been for the last thirty 
years,* they would be sufficient to give her 
the absolute dominion of the seas. To Great 
Britain, therefore, these colonies are invaluable. 

At the conclusion of the late American war, 
the loss of the colonies, which now form part 
of the United States, was considered as im- 
mense, and almost irreparable. 

The colonies which then remained in our 
possession, however, and which now constitute 
our present possessions in that quarter, esti- 
mated either by the consequences which would 
inevitably result to this country from their loss, 
or by their actual value whilst in our possession, 
are of infinitely more importance to us novv 
than those were to us at that period. I shall 
therefore make a few observations concerning 
them in both these respects. 

The loss of them, and their annexation to 
the United States, would be dangerous in the 



put in possession of one of the principal maritime resources of 
these colonies by the British government. 
* See No, 6, in the Appendix. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 273 



extreme. By some it may be considered but 
idle speculation to suppose the loss of these 
colonies as even possible. But, let it be re- 
membered, that they who, during the late 
American war, apprehended the ultimate loss 
of our colonies, were also considered as ti- 
morously anticipating evils which would never 
happen; and apprehending losses which would 
never be sustained. Were we not then taught, 
by fatal experience, however, that our extra- 
vagant contempt of the power of our enemy 
might prove the means of our defeat, — of 
placing victory in the hands of the imbecile, 
and of humbling us even before weakness it- 
self? as that instance and subsequent events 
have fully proved. — 

For, the result of the late war with the Ame- 
ricans was, that they, almost without an army, 
actually heat us out of the field. They have 
alsOy without a navy, ever since, axved us into 
tame submission to the rnost gross violation of 
the maritime laws of Eui^ope, And, whilst 
their government was almost without form or 
consistency, they threatened us into conces- 
sions, by which they have acquired an amount 
of merchant-shipping equal or even greater 

T 



274 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

than our own :^ the greater proportion of 
which— lamentable to state ! — has been reared 
and supported by a sacrifice of the rights and 
privileges of British ship-owners and British 
merchants.^ 

Respecting the means which the Americans 
possess, of constructing and raising a navy, 
let us but for a moment reflect upon the follow- 
ing circumstances, viz. what powerful fleets 
nations of but small and trifling population, 
compared with that of America, have, in some 
instances, by careful nursing and proper pro* 
tection reared upon only the pickings of the 
carriage of the goods of other nations, such as 
Holland, Venice, &c. Ought we not then to 
view with a scrupulous eye the maritime ad- 
vantages possessed by America — her geogra- 
phical and political situation ; — her vast extent 
of coast; — the rapid increase of her popula- 
tion, and the vast and unparalleled growth of 
her commerce; — her extensive resources for 
the support of her shipping; — the amount 
of her tonnage, and number of the sailors 



* See No. 14 in the Appendix, 
^ Ke-e Chap. Ill, 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 275 

who man her merchant-shipping; — the abmi- 
dance of timber and other materials, with 
which her country abounds, fit for the construc- 
tion of ships of the largest dimensions, and 
that her harbours are full of shipwrights suffi- 
cient to build a navy in a very short period ;*— 
and the striking events, and alarming effects, 
as to the aggrandisement which our mistaken 
policy produced in her commercial affairs in 
general in the short period of thirty years. 
Let us seriously reflect upon these important 
facts, and deeply ponder on the consequence to 
which we should render ourselves liable, either 
in risking the safety of our American colonies, 
or in allowing the United States the undue ad- 
vantages she formerly enjoyed over our own 
merchants. 

The vast extent, even nineteen hundred miles, 
of navigfeible coast, full of populous towns, 
and convenient harbours, occupied by the Unir 



* One hundred and twenty shipwrights, &c. are necessary 
to build a seventy-four-gun-ship in six months. A similar 
number employed in each of thirty of the sea-port towns of 
the United States, are therefore capable of building no less 
than sixty line-of-battle ships in the course of twelve months. 

i'2 



276 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

ted States, — her immense shipping, and the 
mode by which it has been acquired, are cir- 
cumstances which, as well as the late over- 
grown power of Buonaparte upon the conti- 
nent of Europe, ought to excite our most se- 
rious attention, and to be met by measures of 
proper precaution. 

These circumstances, minutely investigated 
and maturely weighed, will be found, perhaps, 
to forebode to us consequences nearly as 
alarming as those which we might apprehend 
from the reduction of the whole continent of 
Europe, under the grasp of Buonaparte or 
any other tyrant. For such a continental com- 
bination against us, alarming as it would 
necessarily be, could only be expected to con- 
tinue but for a short period, as has of late been 
most fortunately demonstrated. 

The great body of such an empire acq^uired 
and forced together by the unnatural grasp of 
tyranny and oppression, and composed of na- 
tions varying in manners, customs, languages, 
and laws; differing from each other upon points 
of the most essential importance, and, conse- 
quently, convulsed by internal discontent, 
would be but little calculated to mature anv 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 277 

maritiiite project which would be adequate to 
create and organise a fleet, in any degree capa- 
ble of coping with the British navy. But, 
on the contrary, America not only pos- 
sesses the most extensive maritime resources 
and facilities, but is a country united by the 
same language, manners, and customs, and, 
already bound together by one government; 
and, moreover, every individual under that go- 
vernment, having already benefited by an ex- 
tensive shipping, are therefore intoxicated with 
national pride at their late successes, and, 
teeming with the idea of naval rank and 
power, to which our half measures have 
lately so much contributed. The measures 
therefore, which might be adopted by a coun- 
try so circumstanced, would be framed with 
comparatively more consistency, and prosecu- 
ted with more energy, and consequently must 
produce effects proportionably of a more for- 
midable and permanent nature, than those to 
be apprehended from the measures of any con- 
tinental coalition which could possibly be 
brought together. 

Who in this country, that values its inde- 
pendence, would not be alarmed, were we 



278 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

to recognise France, Holland, Germany, Prus- 
sia, Sweden, Denmark, and Russia, all organi- 
sed under one government; or even the mari- 
time districts of these countries ? There is not, 
perhaps, a loyal subject in the country, pos- 
sessed of common sense and sound understand- 
ing, and an ordinary degree of discernment, 
who would not apprehend consequences, which 
would give him the most serious alarm. 

But how different our ideas and apprehen- 
sions appear to be in respect to the United 
States! Although that government occupies a 
coast, which, compared with the vast extent of 
the continent of Europe, is equally extensive, 
and, (having reference to that part of the 
population only, who are employed and enga- 
ged in maritime affairs,) is, perhaps, equally 
populous, and indeed infinitely superior in 
point of a variety of maritime facilities.— Notwith- 
standing she possesses an amount of shipping, 
ajid every other means which constitute the 
sources from whence a navy is derived and sup- 
ported, almost equally extensive as those posses- 
sed by all these nations, yet these circumstances 
appear to give us no serious concern .— Otherwise, 
we should not have tamely looked on, whilst 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 279 



the Americans made such an extensive aug- 
mentation to their maritime resources as the 
possession of Louisiana. — We should not, by 
opening' the norts of our East-Indian colonies 
to their trade at large, whilst shut against the 
great body of British merchants, have added 
largely to their shipping by crushing our own. — 
We should have neither encouraged nor al- 
low^ed them to have caught cod-fish upon the 
banks of our own coasts, and dry them upon 
our own shores, for the supply of our West- 
Indian settlements ; whilst the fish caught and 
cured by our own colonists, were spoiling in our 
merchants warehouses ybr xvmit of a market.— 
We should not have secured to them the sup- 
plying of our West-Indian settlements with 
lumber, whilst that article was to be had in 
abundance in our own colonies, and our own 
ships rotting in port for want of employment. — 
Neither should we have charged a lower duty 
upon their produce, imported into this country, 
than what we charged upon the produce of 
other foreign nations, whilst they never char- 
ged lower, but in many instances higher, duties 
upon our produce and manufactures than they 
charged upon those of other nations ; nor have 



280 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

meanly submitted to their charge of a counter- 
vailing duty of ^ 3 per ton in favour oj their 
ships, whilst we charged only 22flf. per ton in 
favour of ours. 

The inhabitants of the United States — those 
colonists who rebelled against the mother-coun- 
try, as well in the treaty which acknowledged 
their independence, as in all subsequent trea- 
ties, have in all our commercial arrangements 
with them, had not only the greatest advantages 
allowed them, over the " most favoured na- 
tions," but even been put upon a more favowra- 
ble footing than our own colonists, — ^ a more 
favourable footing than the true and faithful 
inhabitants of these provinces, whose blood 
and treasure were, and are at this very moment, 
cheerfully sacrificed to the salvation of these 
colonies to the British nation. 

It would have been comparatively well for 
our loyal colonists, had they been put upon an 
equally favourable footing as the Americans. 
For, it will be observed, from what has been 
already stated, that Ave allowed the latter to 
import their produce into Great Britain, in 
their own ships, at nearly the same rate of 
duties as was charged upon that from our own 
colonies, and also kept the ports of our West- 



i 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 281 

Indian islands almost constantly open to them 
as a market, where no duty was charged upon 
their produce, thereby allowing them, although 
foreigners, the rights of British colonists. 
These unprecedented advantages, coupled w ith 
the privileges which their independence as a 
nation gave them of trading, I may say, to all 
the ports of the world besides, secured to 
them an uniform demand for their produce, and 
employment to their ships, thereby at all times 
encouraging the growth and exportation of 
th^r produce. 

It is therefore evident that from our govern- 
ment having neither allowed our colonists to 
trade to foreign ports, nor protected their in- 
terests according to the established laws of the 
land, by an adequate difference of duties in 
their trade with herself, the British market 
being over-stocked with importations from the 
United States must have proved tenfold more 
discouraging to the British colonists than to 
the Americans. 

Had American produce been liable to the 
same duties as the produce of other foreign 
countries, in that case, the difference of those 
payable upon the produce of the United States, 
and those payable upon that of the British 



282 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

provinces, would have given our colonists such 
advantages, — such fair, just, and equitable ad- 
vantages, as would have balanced those which 
the Americans derived from their commercial 
intercourse with ports, from which the British 
colonists were excluded. Had this been the 
case, at this very period these provinces would 
have had a population double to that which they 
have at present, and would have been more 
than sufficient to supply the mother-country 
and her West-Indian colonies with lumber, 
grain, flour, fish, &c.: at this period, the Ame- 
rican shipping, compared with what it is now, 
would have been small, and the amount of Bri- 
tish shipping proportionably greater, wdth am- 
ple employment. 

In fact, in every instance so completely have 
the Americans been our superiors at negotia- 
tion, that the result of all our treaties with 
them, and of all our commercial arrangements 
in which they were concerned, have amounted 
either to the robbery of the British provinces 
of their legitimate rights and privileges, or a 
sacrifice of our shipping-interest, and indeed, 
in most instances, to both.* 

* See Chap. III. 



BRITISH AMERICAN tOLONIES. 283 

Reciprocity of interest has been uniformly 
understood to be an axiom, in the negotiation 
of all treaties, and, consequently, might have 
been reasonably looked for in those we entered 
into with America ; but there we look for it in 
vain: — instead of reciprocity, we find, from 
what has been advanced, nothing but the 
grossest partiality and the most unjust advan- 
tages granted the Americans. 

The advantage which they had over us, in 
respect to the expense of navigating their 
ships, being unattended to by us, as already 
observed, operated as a powerful auxiliary in 
giving effect to the direct advantages we allow- 
ed them, and indeed almost entirely excluded 
ours from any participation of the carriage of 
their produce in general. But, in respect to 
lumber in particular, this disability brought 
with it consequences, which were, in the ex- 
treme, destructive of our interests ; namely, by 
preventing the shipment of lumber from the 
British provinces, where our ships would, 
without being rivalled, have earned the whole 
freights. For the 28^. per ton against our ships, 
as stated in No. 5, with only about 1^. iOd. per 
ton, countervailing duty, as stated in No. 3, to 



284 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

balance it, actually shews 26.9. 2d. per ton in 
favour of the American ships : having identi- 
cally the same effect as a countervailing duty 
charged by the British government, upon tim- 
ber imported from the British provinces, in 
favour of the importation of that article from 
the United States. 

I do not urge that this great value and ac- 
cumulated expense of navigating our ships 
was, abstractedly considered, any disadvantage 
which we brought upon ourselves, or, that it 
is one that we could have directly removed : 
ibut, I say it ought to have been so attended 
to, as to have put us upon the alert to prevent 
other circumstances from coming to its aid, to 
the injury of our shipping. 

Had not the inhabitants of the British pro- 
vinces possessed a soil far superior to that of 
the United States, and, therefore, proportion- 
ably a superior quality of timber, from the 
comparatively high freights occasioned by the 
great expense of our ships, they could have 
made no exports of that article, whilst this 
commercial regulation or absurdity existed, 
which admitted United-States timber at a re- 
duced duty. This providential circumstance, 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 285 

however, — the accidental superiority of their 
himber, procured them a small share of this 
trade, notwithstanding the powerful operation 
of this expense of navigating their ships, aided 
by the low duty we charged in favour of the 
United States. 

In whatever light we view the numerous 
and enormous advantages allowed the Ameri- 
cans, they will be found to be downright con- 
cessions and sacrifices ; for we could not be 
said to have had, in any single instance, even 
the shadow of an equivalent. 

The principal advantage which we have 
been said to derive from our commercial deal- 
ings with America, has been the demand she 
afforded us for our manufactures. But, in this 
respect, did she give us a preference ? No ; her 
market was open to the manufactures of other 
countries as well as to ours, and the same du- 
ties charged upon ours as upon those from 
other countries. 

Indeed, for several years past, it has been 
matter of deep concern to those Britons who 
derive the smallest pleasure from reflecting 
upon our former naval superiority, — who are in- 
spired with the leavSt spark of zeal for our fu- 



286 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

ture greatness and independence, to have seen^ 
previous to our present differences with Ame- 
rica, our ships lying rotting in port, — our mer- 
chant dock-yards all dwindling to decay, and 
many of them even deserted, and our ship- 
wrights and sailors sent, by our impolitic pro- 
ceedings, to America to build and man the 
shipping of the United States, for which our 
government had so liberally provided employ- 
ment, — sent there in furtherance of the scheme 
which may be truly said to have been founded 
by American wisdom, foresight, artifice, and 
low cunning, upon British imbecility and pusil- 
lanimity, for turning over the British shipping 
to the United States. 

And to what do we owe the temporary 
check, which has been put to these pro- 
ceedings ; for it is still a question, whether or 
not it may be rendered permanent ? Why ; more 
to the pampered temper, hatred, and ill-hu- 
mour, of this spoiled child than to our own 
wisdom or foresight. 

The Americans having already gained every 
point they disputed with us, became impatient for 
immediate possession of the source from whence 
we derived our maritime superiority. Consi- 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 287 

dering as too tardy the means by which \ve were 
in effect yielding them up the tindent, and encou- 
raged to attempt wresting, by force, what our 
government was systematically granting by 
mean concession, they have thereby saved it to 
the British nation for the present. — They have, 
indeed, in this instance, afforded a pause 
for surveying and reflecting upon past occur- 
rences, that I sincerely hope will teach us the 
necessity of proceeding with caution in all our 
future negotiations and transactions with them, 
which is my sole motive, (and, indeed, a very 
important one,) for bringing these past trans- 
actions under review. 

However, notwithstanding these bonuses, 
generously granted by our government to the 
United States, had so far exceeded the bounds 
of prudence, as not only to lose sight of that of 
reciprocity, but actually to place our merchant- 
shipping upon the verge of ruin, and, conse- 
quently, our navy and nation at large in jeo- 
pardy; yet, the British nation in general, not 
only countenanced ministers in these sacrifices, 
but appeared still inclined, and did, all along, 
urge them on to further concessions. 

It therefore appears, that all ranks of so- 
eiety in tliis country had, with one consent, 



2B8 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

agreed to comply with the unreasonable de- 
mands of America; and, indeed, all in their 
turn have lent their aid or shewn their good- 
will in furtherance of the enormous encroach- 
ments of the government of the United States. 

Indeed, upon every occasion the country in 
general appeared disposed to out-strip govern- 
ment in making sacrifices to America. For, 
when our ministers, having at last become sensi- 
ble of the impolicy of further concessions, began 
to make a stand, appearing inclined to retract 
where it could be consistently done, they were, 
in these laudable exertions, opposed and as- 
sailed by clamorous parties of various descrip- 
tions, both in and out of parliament. This 
was particularly the case of late, when they 
endeavoured, and, indeed much to their credit, 
persevered in asserting the established mari- 
time laws of Europe, — laws, which had so 
much contributed to the high rank which we 
hold amongst other nations, — laws, the rigio 
observance of which, is indispensably neces- 
sary to the support of this elevated situation, 
and, consequently, essential to the very exis- 
tence of our independence. 

It is proper here to remark, that, from the 
facts which have been stated, the principal^ 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 289 

sacrifices were commenced immediately after 
Ihe American war, and were made with the 
greatest liberality up to the commercial treaty 
into which that government frightened us in the 
year 1794. ^ 

At the commencement of the restrictions 
which the Americans imposed upon their com- 
mercial iiitercpurse with tliis country, the sa- 
crifice of the commercial, shipping, and colo- 
nial interests of Great Britain had actually 
become so notorious, as has been already 
stated, as was suflScient to induce a belief, that 
the British government, in their commercial 
arrangements with the Americans, had no con- 
cern for the interests of this country. These 
foreigners had the ports of our colonies kept 
open to them against the wise laws of our 
ancestors, and contrary to the example and 
sound policy of other nations ; — they were en- 
couraged to supply our settlements in the West 
Indies with fish* and lumber, when the fishe- 



* The demand for fish in our West-Indian settlements, 
upon an average of three years, ending 1807, was 456,221 
cwts. 97,486 of which was furnished by the mother-country, 
leaving 358,735 cwt. which should have been supplied from 
our own American fisheries. But, strange and unaccount- 
able as it may appear, although our own fisheries produced 

u 



290 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

ries and timber-trade of our own colonies were 
in the most depressed state; — they were en- 
couraged to trade to our settlements in the 
Mediterranean, and to our Asiatic establish- 
ments, and, in particular, to supply these with 
masts and spars, as well as every other kind 
of lumber, whilst British colonists were, and 
are to this very moment, excluded these pri- 
vileges ; at least with the trifling exception of 
some few ports in the Mediterranean, wherein 
they have lately been allowed the great privi- 
lege of coming in competition with these foreign- 
ers in a trade, which, according to the laws of 
the land, ought to have been altogether sacred 
to British subjects. And, moreover, they have 
been allowed upxvards of three thousand per cent 
advantage over our ship-owners in the counter- 
vailing duty charged by them and us, respective- 
ly, besides their produce being admitted into 



817,351 cwt. and, from their discouraged state, were ca- 
pable of the greatest improvement ; yet the British govern- 
ment encouraged the Americans to supply 168,125 cwt. of 
this 358,735, whilst, from their impolitic measures, they so 
cramped this valuable branch of trade from our American 
colonies, that only 170,610 was supplied from our own fish- 
eries in that quarter.— See No. 18, in the Appendix. 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 291 

this country at a lower duty than that charged 
upon other foreign produce, to the great discou- 
ragement of our colonial and shipping interests ; 
whereas, they allowed us no advantage over 
other foreigners, but, on the contrary, singled 
us out for many insults and disadvantages. 
These enormous, these unaccountable and dis- 
graceful sacrifices were continued to the Ame- 
ricans, as long as their insufferable ambition 
and hostile disposition, engendered by our 
pusilanimity, would allow the enjoyment of 
them. 

It is notorious that a reformation of the 
abuses which existed in the management of 
our maritime and commercial concerns with 
America, previous to the commencement of 
the present war with that country, was highly 
necessary. This circumstance should there- 
fore be duly attended to, in any negotiation 
into which we enter with that country. Re- 
garding the footing upon which we stood with 
the United States previous to the present war, 
however, it is but just to remark, that our 
present ministers deserve some degree of merit 
for the stand they made in our continued pro- 
gress of concession to that country as well as 

T 2 



292 IMPORTANCE OP THET 



for some attempts at a reformation of former 
abuses. 

In this, however, they were assailed by the 
strongest opposition,— by the clamour of an 
interested party, who were heard from various 
parts of the country, — and by what is called 
the opposition in parliament, who have upon 
every occasion strenuously advocated the 
cause of America, even to the fullest extent of 
her unreasonable demands. 

As the reformation of the shameful abuses 
which have existed in the disposition of all our 
arrangements with America has fallen to the lot 
of our present ministers, it is most devoutly to 
be hoped they will perform it scrupulously 
agreeable to our maritime laws, as far as 
relates to our shipping; — congenial with the in« 
terests of the community at large, as respects 
our commerce and colonies in general; — and in 
every respect becoming the dignity of the Bri- 
tish nation. 

The uniform hostile disposition which Ame- 
rica has evinced towards us renders it the im- 
perious duty of ministers, in their conduct to- 
wards her, both to adopt the most prompt and 
decisive measures in defending our Anierican 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 293 



provinces during the present war, and to pro- 
ceed with the greatest caution and circumspec- 
tion in negotiating a peace. The most wary 
and guarded conduct in all our proceedings 
with a country of such immense and unprece- 
dented growth, both as respects her popula- 
tion and commerce, is highly necessary. In 
the short space of 20 years, she has doubled 
her population, which is now nearly 8,000,000 ; 
encreased her exports from about 16,000,000 
to 118,000,000 dollars; her shipping from 
939,000 to 1,911,250 tons ;— and, before she 
had either raised an army or fitted out a navy, 
has actually, by her threatenings and artful ne- 
gotiation, nearly doubled her territorial extent,* 
and trebled her maritime resources.^ 

Is it not trifling, then, with the most serious 



^- This acquisition will be fouocl in her possession of 
Louisiana. 

t The permission granted her for fishing upon the coast 
of our American colonies — her possession of Louisiana, — 
and the general sacrifice of our maritime laws, which was 
commenced immediately after her independence, and made 
in the most unlimited manner, up to her actual hostilities 
against us, has certainly trebled her maritime resources. 



294 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

and impottant concerns of the British nation, to 
overlook, as we have hitherto done, the unprece- 
dented growth and aggrandizement of this im^ 
mense country?-— To risk ahnost improtected 
our valuable Canadian possessions to the attack 
of this artful and successful enemy, and by our 
neglect of these provinces excite the disaffection 
of their inhabitants, and thereby turn their un- 
paralleled loyalty and patriotism into cold indif- 
ference to our interests, must be considered a 
crime of the first magnitude committed against 
the British nation. 

Whatever importance, however, these colo- 
nies derive from an apprehension of the con- 
sequences which might result from their loss 
and annexation to the United States, they de- 
rive infinitely more from the great advantages 
which may be drawn from their valuable in- 
herent properties and extensive resources. 

The loss which we sustained, by the dis- 
memberment of those of our colonies, which 
now form part of the United States, by the 
last American w^ar, was considered immense, 
and it certainly was a loss of great magnitude; 
but those provinces, which then remained to 
us, being our present possessions in that quar 



BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIES. 295 

ter, are, in every respect, as I have already 
observed, of infinitely more importance to us 
now than the colonies then lost were to us at 
that time. 

At the commencement of the late Ameri- 
can war, the colonies which we lost then 
only annually exported produce to the amount 
of about o£'l,752,142; those that remained in 
our possession, now annually export to the 
amount of about ^3,000,000.— Then 193,890 
tons of shipping were all that was annually 
employed in the exportation of the produce of 
the colonies we lost at that time ; 309,994 tons 
are now annually employed in the exportation 
of the produce of the colonies^now in our pos- 
session. — Then the amount of our manufac- 
tures, &c. annually imported into the colonies 
which Ave lost, was only about ^2,732,036, 
whilst the possession of these provinces afford- 
ed no further facilities in this respect, than that 
which their own consumption produced ; but 
the amount now annually imported into the 
colonies which remained and is now in our 
possession, is upwards of ^5,000,000, inclu- 
ding goods vended through these settlements 
into the United States, into which they con- 



296 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

stitute a door of access, more than 1200 
miles in width, for the introduction of our 
manufactures into that country. -^ A door, 
which, if the British are sufficiently awake 
to their own interests in keeping it ^pen, 
will not only render embargo, non-intercourse, 
or, even war itself, ineffectual in preventing 
the most extensive importation of our manu- 
factures into the United States ; but, what 
is also of infinite importance, it will, both in 
peaoe and in war, render the duties charged 
upon our manufactures imported into the Uni- 
ted States, operate as pi'emiums or counter- 
vailing duties for encouraging their introduc- 
tion from the British settlements, and thereby, 
not only render prohibitory measures ineffec- 
tual, but, what is also of immense importance, 
a preference to the manufactures of other na- 
tions impossible. 

In fact, notw ithstandiiig the advantages which 
the United States have derived from her neu- 
trality,, during the convulsed state of Europe 
for the last twenty years, her great acquisition 
of territory, and the enormous commercial sa- 
crifices w^iicli she has enjoyed from Great Bri • 
t'din ever since her independence ; yet, the ex- 



BRITISH AMERICAN PROVINCES. 297 

ports, both in point of tonnage and value, from 
our remaining provinces, shackled and discou- 
raged as they have been, have, compared with 
the American exports, experienced an equal 
ratio of increase. 

Our East-Indian possessions, which have 
of late occupied so much of our attention, 
appear of great consequence, and are certainly 
possessions of great magnitude. — Boasting a po- 
pulation of 60,000,000, whilst the vast patronage 
necessarily attached to colonies of so great a 
population and extensive territory, certainly 
render their importance very conspicuous : but, 
in point of real worth to the nation, they fall 
infinitely short of our American colonies. For, 
it will be observed, and it is worthy of remark, 
that these Asiatic possessions only employ an- 
nually, in their exports to this country, about 
40,000 tons of shipping ; whilst our American 
colonies, in their exports, employ upwards of 
300,000 tons. 

In 1810, the imports, from our East-Indian 
colonies, amounted only to about ^5,000,000, 
while the imports from our American colonies 
amounted to upwards of that amount, with the 



298 IMPORTANCE OF THE 

most flattering prospect of en crease.* Of these 
respective imports, too, the freight upon those im- 
ported from the East-Indies amounted only to 
about ^£1,200,000, whilst, of those imported 
from our American pro-vinces, upwards of 
^2,500,000 was composed ©f the earnings of 
British ships, — the most valuable species of 
British commercial revenue. Regarding, more- 
over, these imports, which in point of value 
appear nearly of an equal amount, it may be 
observed, that four or five ships, manned 
with a few enervated foreigners, who must, 
under a heavy penalty, be returned to their 
native country, are sufficient to import Asiatic 
produce and manufactures to the amount of 
a million sterling; whilst to import of the 
produce of our American colonies to that 
amount an immense fleet, manned with several 
thousand of the hardiest seamen (our own 
countrymen) must be employed. 



* See Nos. 11 and 12. 



J 



APPENDIX. 



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308 APPENDIX. 



OBSERVATIONS. 

There appears to have been 10,695 tons of goods, besides 
lumber, exported from Quebec in 1806; and, considering that 
ships generally carry about a ton and a half measurement- 
goods, per ton register measurement, 7,134 tons register 
were therefore equal to have carried these articles ; and, 
therefore, of the 33,996 register tons, cleared out from this 
port, there must have remained 26,862 for lumber, as stated 
in the table. 

Reckoning a ton register capable of carrying 1^ load, 
(equal to 1^ ton of 40 cubic feet,) it appears tliat the quan- 
tity of lumber exported from Quebec, in 1806, mtist have 
been about 32,234 loads; being 40,293 tons of 40 cubic 
feet, as in the table. 

It appears, also, that the quantity of all kinds of goods, 
besides lumber, exported from Quebec, in 1810, was about 
15,549 tons ; and, considering that 10,366 register tons is 
equal to have carried these goods, and that, in that year, 
there were 143,893 tons register-measurement cleared out 
from this port, 133,527 must have been used in the carriage 
of lumber, and consequently must have transported about 
160,232 loads of that article ; being equal to 200,290 tons 
of 40 cubic feet, as in the table. 

The increase, therefore, in the exports of lumber from the 
Canadas, in the space of these four years, was 128,008 loads, 
or, 160,001 tons of 40 cubic feet. 

In estimating the quantity of lumber exported from the 
lower ports of the British provinces, in 1806 and 1810, (as I 
am not in possession of the detailed particulars of the ex- 
ports made from these ports, having only the amount of the 
register tonnage cleared out,) I shall, therefore, compute the 
quantity of lumber exported, by deducting an amount of 
tonnage computed to have been used in tlie exportation of 
articles other than lumber, equal to the quantity of tonnage 
employed in the carriage of such articles from the Cana- 
das, deducting, over-and-above that amount, 30,000 register- 
tons for the carriage of fish from Newfoundland, viz. 

Register Ton. 

Cleared out from the low^r ports in 1806 - 90,251 

Deduct for the carriage of all goods ex- 
cept lumber, and fish exported 

from Newfoundland 7,134 

— for fish from Newfoundland - 30,000* 37,134 



Tons 53,117 



* See No. 18. 



APPENDIX. 309 



Thus it appears, that 53,117 tons register-measurement, 
had been used in the carriage of lumber, being equal to have 
carried 63,741 loads. 

Cleared out from the lower ports in 1810 166,101 

Deduct for the carriage of all goods other 
than lumber and fish exported from 

Newfoundland 10,366 

— for the carriage of fish from New- 
foundland - 30,000 

40,366 



Tons employed in the carriage of timber 125,735 



This 125,735 tons, register-measurement, at IJ load per 
ton is equal to have carried 150,882 loads. 



The following recapitulatory statement of these remarks, 
respecting lumber, exhibit an interesting view of the exports 
of that article from the British American provinces, viz. 

Exports in 1806. 1810. 

Loads. Loads. 

From the Canadas - 32,234 160,232 

From the lower provinces, &c. 63,741 150,882 



Loads 95,975 311,114 



Loads. 

Exports in 1810 311,114 
Ditto in 1806 - 95,975 



Increase in these four vears 215,139 loads. 



OAK TIMBER. 



The quantity of oak timber exported from Quebec, in 
1806, reckoning each piece 33|^ cubic feet, was 5,540 loads, 
and, ill 1810, 22,520 ; the increase in these four years being 
17,080 loads. 

GRAIN. 

The average quantity of wheat annually exported from 
Quebec, for eight years, ending 1810, (flour and biscuit reck- 
oned into wheat and included), was 304,000 bushels<J and, of 
other grain 26,483, making the gross exports of grain 
330,483 bushels. It may be remarked, however, that the 
exports in 1801 were upwards of 1,000,000 bushels. 



310 APPENDIX. 



Value of the Exports from the whole of British 
North America, for five Years, ending in 1810. 

The value of exports from the Lower Provinces cannot be 
so precisely ascertained as the value of those made from the 
Canadas. The exports from the Upper Provinces, being all, 
(except the small quantities exported from Gaspe and St. 
^ohns,) cleared out at the Custom-House of Quebec, ren- 
ders their value easily ascertained. 

In the absence, however, of official documents respecting 
particular details of the exports from the lower ports, as we 
have an official statement of the tonnage of the shipping 
cleared out from these, we may from that circumstance form 
a tolerably correct estimate of the value of the goods ex- 
ported. As this amount of tonnage, after making a deduc- 
tion for the carriage of cod-fish from Newfoundland, con- 
siderably exceeds the tonnage cleared out from Quebec, it 
cannot be doubted that the value of the exports from these 
ports must have also exceeded the value of the exports 
made from Quebec, particularly as I have included the 
226,603 cwt. of fish, exported from Nova Scotia, New 
Brunswick, and Cape Breton : — In forming the following es- 
timate of the value, however, I shall only state them at an 
equal amount. 

Value exported from Quebec in 1806 - - - ^'551,570 
Ditto from the Lower Ports, in the same year, 

estimated at---------- 551,570 

Value of the Cod-fish exported from Newfound- 
land ------- 354,448* 

Total value of exports from British North Ame- 
rica in 1806 ------- -^ - o£'l,457,588t 



Value exported from Quebec in 1807 - - - - 681,740 
Ditto from the Lower Ports, in the same year, 

estimated at --------- - 681,740 

Value of cod-fish exported from the Lower Ports^ 

estimated at --------- - 354,448* 



Total value of exports from British North Ame- 
rica in 1807 --------- c£'l,717,928t 



* The exports of cod-fish from Newfoundland, upon an average of 
the four years, ending 1.808, was 590,748 cwt. which, at 12s. per cwt. 
amounts to ^354,448. 

t These are exclusive of the exports to the United States by way of 
St. John's, and also of those made from Gaspe. 



APPENDIX. 311 



Value exported from Quebec in 1808 - - -cfljOOOjOOO 
Ditto from the Lower Forts, in the same year, 

estimated at - - 1,000,000 

Value of cod-fish exported from the Lower 

Ports, estimated at - 354,448^ 



Total value of exports from British North Ame- 
rica in 1808 o£'2,354,448t 



Value exported from Quebec in 1809 - - - 1,112,668 
Ditto from the Lower Ports, in the same year, 

estimated at - - - 1,112,668 

Value of cod-fish exported from the Lower 

Ports, estimated at 354,448* 

Total value of exports from British North Ame- 
rica in 1809 - - «£'2,579,784t 



Value exported from Quebec in 1810 - - - 1,078,048 
Ditto from the Lower Ports, in the same year, 

estimated at 1,078,048 

Value of cod-fish exported from the Lower 

Ports, estimated at ------- - 354,448* 

Total value exported from British North Ame- 
rica in 1810 £2,510,544t 



Imports of British and Colonial Produce and Ma- 
nufactures INTO our North-American Colonies, 
for the Domestic Consumption of these Settle- 
ments, FOR FIVE Years, ending in 1810. 

Respecting the Imports of British and colonial pro- 
duce and manufactures made into our American Provinces, 
it may be observed that, although I have not been able to ob- 



Ibid. t Ibid. 



312 APPENDIX. 



tain official documents, by which their precise value could be 
ascertained, yet, nevertheless, a very correct computation 
of their amount may be made, by taking the value of the 
exports from these settlements, as a criterion. 

In reference to this computation, it may be also observed, 
that it is more than probable, the value of the exports of 
these colonies exceeds that of their imports. Otherwise the 
trade of these settlements must have produced effects very 
different from what their thriving state indicates ; it would 
have had the same tendency, as the conduct of an indivi- 
dual whose expenditure exceeds his income. The large 
supplies furnished the British government's establishments in 
that country, and the exports from Gaspe, however, neither 
of which is included in the estimate of the value of exports 
stated in No. 2, will constitute an ample allowance for this 
economical difference. 

The imports, therefore, of British produce and manufac- 
tures, &c. furnished by our own merchants and manufac- 
turers, as well as carried by our own ships, may be fairly 
estimated at an amount equal with the exports, as stated 
above, and would therefore stand as follows : — 

Value of the British and colonial produce 
•nd manufactures imported into our colonies 
in North America for the consumption of 

these settlements only in 1806 - c£l,457,588 

in 1807 - 1,717,928 
in 1808 - 2,354,448 
in 1809 - 2,579,748 
in 1810 - 2,510,544 
Respecting these imports, it is also of importance to ob- 
serve, that since the restrictions imposed, by the American 
government, upon our commerce with that country, there 
has been upwards of o£'3,000,000 of our manufactures annu- 
ally imported into the British American colonies, for the 
United-States market. The gross amount of the imports 
of British manufactures, <fec. into these provinces since that 
period would therefore stand thus : — 

In 1808, for the consumption of these pro- 
vinces ---------- £2,354,448 

Ditto, for the United-States market, about - 3,000,000 



Total amount of imports of British manufac- 
tures, &c. made into our American pro- 
vinces in 1808 --=----- ^5,354,448 



APPENDIX. 313 



In 1809, for the consumption of these pro- 
vinces 2,579,748 

Ditto, for the United-States market, about - 3,000,000 



Total amount of imports of British manufac- 
tures, &c. made into our American pro- 
vinces in 1809 c£5,579,748 



In 1810, for the consumption of these pro- 
vinces --------- 2,510,544 

Ditto, for the United-States market, about - 3,000,000 



Total amount of imports of British manufac- 
tures, &c. made into our American pro- 
vinces in 1810 - - - £5,510,544 



Value of the Imports made into Great Britain 
FROM British North America, for five Years, 

ENDING IN 1810. 

A very correct statement of the value of the imports 
from our American colonies may be made by adding the 
amount of the frieghts and other charges to the invoice 
value of the goods, a^ follows : — 

To invoice value, or amount of the exports 

from British North America in 1806 - - £1,457,588 

To freight, 124,247 register tons, at 

^8 each ----.-_> 992,976 

To sundry other charges,* at £l per 

ton 124,247 

. 1,117,223 



Total value of our imports from British Ame- 
rica in 1806 -.------- ^2,574,811 



* Premium of insurance, commissions, warehouse aad other rents and 
charges. 



314 APPENDIX. 



To invoice value, or amount of the exports 

from British North America in 1807 - - 1,717,928 

To freight, 129,846 register tons, at 

of 8 each ----..- 1,038,768 

To sundry other charges, at £l per 

ton 129,846 

1,168,014 



Total value of our imports from British North 

America in 1807 <£2,886,542 



To invoice value, or amount of the exports 

from British North America in 1808 - - 2,354,448 

To freight, 189,573 register tons, at 

0^8 each - - 1,516,584 

To sundry other charges, at £l per 

ton 189,573 

~ 1,706,157 



Total value of our imports from British North 

America in 1808 - .£4,060,605 



To invoice value, or amount of the exports 

from British North America in 1809 - - 2,579,748 

To freight, 236,564 register tons, at 

o£'8each ------- 1,892,512 

To sundry other charges, at £l per 

ton - - 236,564 

— 2,129,076 

Total value of our imports from British North 



America in 1809 - c£4,708,824 



To invoice value, or amount of the exports 

from British North America in 1810 - - - 2,510,544 

To freights, 309,994 register tons, 

at £8 each ------ 2,479,952 

To sundry other charges, at £l per 

ton--------- 309,994 

2,789,946 



Total value of our imports from British North 

America in 1810 ^ - = - - = - - o£'5,300,490 



APPENDIX. 315 



A considerable proportion of the cod-fish, and a small part 
of the other articles exported from these colonies, being 
shipped to our West-Indian settlements and foreign coun- 
tries, no doubt, make some small diminution of the value of 
our imports from these possessions, as stated above. The 
amount, however, of this diminution is not very consider- 
able ; and, indeed, upon taking a minute view of the sub- 
ject, these will hardly appear to be such in reality. For 
these indirect shipments, being carried by British ships, and 
the business transacted by British merchants, they are there- 
fore generally drawn for on Great Britain, and consequently 
the gross proceeds of the sales remitted also to this coun- 
try ; and such of those remittances as are from foreign coun- 
tries are generally made in foreign produce, which other- 
wise most probably would not have been imported. The 
freight, profit, &c. of these are therefore as net a gain to 
the British merchant ; and, of course, the transaction as 
advantageous to the nation in general as if the fish, flour, 
&c. had been brought to Great Britain and re-exported. 
Yea, under certain circumstances, it is infinitely more advan- 
tageous to both ; for, had the goods been brought to Great 
Britain, perhaps, from the accumulated expense, no profit 
might have resulted to the merchant, and consequently the 
public could have derived no permanent advantage from such 
a trade as, under these circumstances, it would of necessity 
have been relmquished. — See note to No. 17. 



316 



APPENDIX. 



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320 



APPENDIX. 



No. 5. 

THE HIGH PRICE OF BRITISH SHIPS, &C. 



The vast Disadvantage which British Ships are under, in cases wherein 
Foreign Ships come in competition with them for Freight, shewn bj^ a 
comparative Statement of the Charges to which British and American 
Ships were respectively liable, upon a six months' vo^'age, previous 
to the present War with the United Stales : the Ships supposed to be of 
equal Quality and Tonnage. 



English Ship, 360 Tons, valued at 
^10,080, ^eing £2S per Ton. 



American Ship, 360 Tons, valued at 
^7,200, being £'iO per Ton. 



Dr. 

To pro visions and all other ex- 
penses in fitting out for the 
voyage, up to the period of 
the ship sailing, — expenses 
at her loading-port in Ame- 
rica, — and all charges and 
expenses upon her return, 
up to the period of deliver- 
ing her cargo, (except pre- 
mium of insurance and sai- 
lors' wages) ------- 

To premium of insurance upon 
^12,000, at 6 per cent. - 

To wages, viz. master ^12j 
mate £6 ; twelve men at 
£5 each ; three men at ^4 
each ; one boy at ^2 ; and 
one at £1 each per month, 
for six months ------- 558 

To extra expenses incurred by 
sailors running away • - - 

To interest of capital, profit, 
a corapensiition for manage- 
ment, wear-and-tear, &c. 
say 9.0 per cent, per ann, 
upon the ship valued at 
^10,080 



850 



720 



50 



1008 



Dr. £ 

To provisions and expenses in 
fitting out for the voyage, 
taking in the cargo, and all 
charges up to the period of 
the ship'i> sailing, — expenses 
at the port of delivery in 
Great Britain, — and also all 
charges and expenses which 
she may incur, up to the 
period of her being safely 
moored in the American 
port where she took in her 
cargo, (except premium of 
insurance and sailors' wages 850 

To premium of insurance upon 
^'9000, at 4 per cent. - - 360 

To sailors' wages, viz.' master 
^12; mc-te £7; fifteen 
men at ^4 each ; and two 
men at £2 : 13 : 4 each per 
monih, for six months - - - 500 

To interest of capital, profit, 
a conapensation for manage- 
ment, wear-and-tear, &c. 
20 per cent, per ann. 
upon the ship valued at 
^7200 



Cr. 

or f 
^4 : 18 per ton measure- I 
ment, (40 cubic feet) - - } 



By amount of freight, 
£7: 7 per ton register 



;i86 



2430 



Loss — £756 



Cr. 



By amount of freight, at' 
£7 : 7 per ton register, 
or ^4 : 18 per ton mea- 
suremeni,(40cubic feet) , 



720 



2430 



•^2430 



N. B. Considering that merchant-ships, particularly of the dimensions 
above-mentioned, or upwards, generally carry not less than a ton and an 
half of goods by measure per register ton, this loss of £756, which the 
British ship incurs is therefore equal to ^2 : 2 per ton, register mea- 
surement ; — £1 : 15 per load, of .50 cubic feet; — or £l : 8 per ton of 
measurement goods.* 



* The disproportion between-British built ships and ships built in the 
Baltic is much more in favour of the latter. 



APPENDIX 



321 



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322 



APPENDIX. 







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'Ti . ^ O O O 


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he annual 

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Colonies, f< 
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, 1,271,140 Bushel 
of even Numbers, 
Lumber into these 
! Quantity annuall 
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APPENDIX, 



323 



No. 7. 

The Number of Merchant Ships, with the Amount of their 
Tonnage, annually built in Great Britain, for the last Twenty- 
five Years, with an Estimate of the Quantity of Oak Timber 
used in the United Kingdom, for Maritime Purposes. 



Year. 
1789 


Ships. 


Tonnage 


Year. 


Ships. 


Tonnage 


Year. 
1806 


Ships. 


Tonnage 


627 


58,027 


1798 


702 


79,872 


606 


58,772 


1790 


577 


57,137 


1799 


689 


83,658 


1807 


629 


58,161 


1791 


624 


58,760 


1800 


845 


115,349 


1808 


455 


46,859 


1792 


655 


66,95] 


1801 


918 


1 10,206 


1809 


448 


51,248 


17>3 


652 


65,583 


1802 


1,021 


115,573 


1810 


501 


68,281 


1794 


555 


55,600 


1803 


1,194 


118,238 


1811 


597 


88,121 


1795 


540 


63,235 


1804 


778 


81,595 


1812 


870 


115,630 


1796 


628 


84,928 


1805 


718 


71,603 


1813 


760 


94,198 


1797 


630 


78,250 














Average A-" 


1 


Average A-' 


1 


Average A-'\ 


mount of tons / 


mount of tons # 


mount of tons / 


annually built \ 63,385 


annually built \ 97,011 


annually built \ 72,658 


for the 9 years \ 


for the 8 years \ 


for the 8 years i 


ending 


1797. ^ 


y 1 


ending 


1805. , 


y 1 


ending 


1813. J 


' 1 



Average of the 25 years, ending 5th Jan. 1813, viz. Ships 868.— Tons 76,635. 



An Estimate of the Quantity of Oak Timber annu- 
ally USED mR ALL MARITIME PURPOSES IN GrEAT 

Britain, viz. 

Loads, 
For the building of new merchant ships, the tonnage 
of which, instead of 76,633 tons, which appears, 
from the above statement, to be the average amount 
built yearly for the last 25 years, I shall, for the 
sake of round numbers, state at 80,000, which, at 
one load per ton, is*--------- 80,000 

For repairing merchant ships f ------- 10,000 

For the supply of his Majesty's dock-yards - - - 40,000 



Loads - 130,000 



* Considering that this estimate is made in reference to Quebec oak, which is> 
in general, die-square, and not under twelve inches upon the side, a load per 
ton is more than equal to the quantity requisite. 

t With the timber obtained from broken-up ships, 10,000 loads, will coa- 
etitute a sufficient quantity for repairs. 

y2 



su 



APPENDIX. 



No. 8. 

A Statement of the rapid Increase of the Employment which British 
Shins havp lately rereived from our American Pr'^vinces, viz. 







1 


Aravjunt of tUe register ton- 




Amount of the tonnage an- 


nage cleared out from the 




nually cleared out from Que- 


lower ports of the British 


Gross amount of 


bec since the year 


1797. 


i)rovinces in the years 1807 
tu 1810. 


the register tons 
cleared out frond 
our North- Ame- 
rican provinces. 


Year 


Number 


■Register 


Year. 


Number 


Register 




of Ships. 


Tonnage. 
13.349 


of Ships. 


Tons. 




1797 


87 










1798 


78 


11,882 








• 1 


1799 


125 


17,941 










1800 


140 


16,837 










1801 


175 


25,736 










1802 


197 


32,999 










1803 


208 


26,493 










1804 


173 


26,883 










1805 


170 


26,506 










1806 


193 


33,996 


1806 


690 


90,251 


124,247 


1807 


239 


42,293 


1807 


6^1 


87,543 


129,846 


1808 


334 


? 0,275 


1808 


883 


119,298 


189,573 


1809 


434 


87,825 


1809 


1,132 


148,739 


236,564 


1810 


661 


143,893 


1810 


1,091 


166,101 


309,994 



Estimate of the Amount of the Freights of tiie Exports from our 
American Provinces in the Years 1806 and 1810 respectively^ 
shewing the Increase in the course of these four Years. 



Amount of the register tonnage 
of ships cleared out from Que- 
bec in 1806, - - 33,996a^8pertonj 

Ditto, ditto, in 1810, 143,893 a ditto - - 

Amount of the register tonnage 
cleared out from the ports 
of the Lower Provinces in 
1806, - - - - 90,251 a ditto - - 

Ditto, ditto, in 1810, 166,101 a ditto - - 



Total amount of the freights of the exports from 
the British American Provinces in 1806 - 

Total amount of tjie freights of the exports from 
our British American Provinces in 1810 - 



Freights in 
1806. 



£ 
271,968 



722,008 



993,976 



Freights in 
1810. 



£ 

1,151,144 
1,328,808 

2,479,952 



N. B. According to the above statement, the increase of freights from Quebec 
in the four years ending in 1810, was ------- ^b79,176 

Ditto, ditto, from the Lower Provinces in 1810, was - - - 606,800 



Total increase in the four years ending in 1810* £i,4i85,976 



* This increase in the course of th^sefour years exceeds the whole earoiagt 
cf British ships in all our trade to the East Indies and China. 



APPENDIX, 



325 



No. 9. 

The extensive and improveable Resources of British Ame- 
rica, exhibited by a Comparative Statement of the Amount 
of Tonnage cleared out from tlie Ports of these Colonies, 
and the United States, respectively, viz. 



Cleared out upon an average of three years, ending 1772, viz. 



From thf Colonies which revolted 
aiid now form the United States. 



For Great Bri- 
tain.- - - - 

For the West- 
Indies - - • 



Ships. 



6S28 



Tons. 



81,951 



2,297; 111,939 



Total 



Total 
amount 
of Ton 
nage. 



193,890 



From the loyal Colonies whrch now 
constitute the British provinces. 



For Great Bri- 
tain- - - - 

For the West 
Indies • - 



Ships. 



250 
15 



Totis 



9,582 
735 



Total 



Total 
amount 
of Ton- 
nage 



10,317 



Amount of tonnage cleared out from the British provin 
ces for Great Britain, the West Indies, 6cc. in 1810, 
(being no less than about 30 times the amount cleared out 
111 1772) - - - 

Deduct the amount cleared out from the colonies which 
we lost, and that now form the United States- . . > . . 



Ships, Tons. 



1,75^ 



Tons 



309,994 
193,890 



116,104 



Thus it appears, that the tonnage of the exports, from the 
provinces which we now possess in America, exceeds that of 
the exports which were made from the colonies which we lost, 
at the commencement of the late American war, no less than 
116,104 tonSy—2i most convincing proof of how much more 
consequence our present possessions, in that country, are to 
us now than what those which we lost were to us at^he tim« 
they revolted. ^ 



326 



APPENDIX. 



No. 10. 

The Importance of British America, exhibited by a compa- 
rative Statement of the Imports which Great Britain has 
received from these Provinces, and the United States re- 
spectively, viz.; , i 





Imported upon an average of six years, ending 1774. 




From the colo lies which revolted 
and now constitute the United States. 

^1,752,142 


From the loyal colonies which now 
constitute the British American pro- 
vinces. 

«£'123,372 




In 1807. 




From the United States, being the 
year preceding the restrictions im- 
posed- by the American government, 
and therefore amongst the greatest of 
our imports frOm that country. 

^6,531,410 


From tlje British provinces. 
^2,886,542 




In 1808. 




From the United States.* From the British provinces. 




^4,060,605. t 




In 1809. 




From the United States.* 


l^rom the British provinces. 
^4,708,824 t 




In 1810. 1 




From the United States.* 


From the British provinces. 
^5,300,490.t 



* The restrictiT© and hostile measures of the American government have 
interrupted any importations being received direct from that country since 
J807, except by licence 3 the amount of these, however, have been but 
trifling since that period. 

t See remarks upon No. 2. 



APPENDIX. 327 



[No. 10, continued.] 

Thus it appears that the value of our imports from these 
colonies, in 1810, amounts to upwards of an eighth part of the 
average value of the gross amount of our imports from all 
parts,* and nearly equal in point of value to the East-Indian 
and Chinese produce and manufactures which we import. 
This statement, therefore, exhibits a very interesting view of 
the trade of our American provinces. The vast importance 
of this valuable branch of our commerce will be seen in 
the clearest point of view, however, by observing that more 
than half the value of these imports is derived from the earn- 
ings of British ships. 

Although, in point of value, our imports from the East 
Indies and China, and from our British North American 
provinces, may be about equal; yet they differ greatly in 
favour of the latter, in point of the national advantages, which 
we derive from our trade with these respective colonial 
establishments. Three or four ships may import, of the 
riches of India, to the amount of a million sterling : — but to 
import, to the amount of a million of lumber, from the Cana- 
das, an immense fleet of ships, manned with hardy sailors,— 
our own countrymen, must be employed ! ! 



* The average value of our imports, for the last ten years, amounts to 
about ^38,000,000, exclusive of those from Ireland, 



328 



APPENDIX. 



No. 11. 

The great and rapidly increasing Demand from British America 
forBritish Manufactures, exhibited by a comparative State- 
ment of the Value of our Exports to the United States, 
and to our American Colonies respectively, viz. 



Exported upon an average of three yearsy ending in 1774. 



United States. 

To the colonies which re- 
volted, and now constitute 
the United States - - - 



£ 

,732,036 



British Provinces. 

To the loyal colonies which 
now constitute the British 
American provhices - - 



379,411 



Exported in 1807. 



To the United States. 



11,864,513 



To the British provinces 



1,717,9528 



Exported in 1808. 



To the United States ahout 



5,^41,739 



To the British provinces* 



5,354,448 



Exported in J 809. 



To the United States t 



To the British provinces* 



5,579,748 



Exported in 1810, 



To the United States. t 



To the British provinces* 



5,510,544 



_l 



* About ^3,000,000 of these have been for the United States. See No. 2. 
t From the operation of the American embargo and non-intercourse mea- 
sures few exports were or could be made to the States in these two years. 



APPENDIX. 329 



[No. n, continued.] 

This statement of the amount of produce and manufac^ 
tures exported to our North American colonies, in the ab- 
sence of official documents, is estimated upon the truest 
principles which could be adopted, namely, the amount of 
the exports from these colonies, as stated in the obser\'ations 
upon No. 2. From a comparison of the relative value of 
their exports and imports, made, at the periods as above 
stated, with those of other countries similarly situated, or, 
even with the trade of these provinces at former periods, it 
will be found, from the propositions stated, and inferences 
drawn in making this statement that our exports to these 
parts must be considered rather under than over-rated. 

The imports of British produce and manufactures, &c. 
into these settlements, in 1806, was £1,457,588, and, in 
1810, .£5,510,544, an increase of upwards of one-third of 
the greatest of any one year's demand from the United States, 
and about three times the amount annually exported to our 
vast possessions in the East Indies.* 

This increase has no doubt been partly for the supply of 
the United States. This circumstance, however, does not 
lessen the importance of these colonies ; but, on the con- 
trary, increases their consequence, by shewing that the 
American government have it not in their power to prohibit 
our manufactures. This commercial facility, afforded us by 
the local situation of these provinces, proves the vast impor- 
tance of which the possession of Louisiana and the Florida*, 
from their commanding situation, would be to the British 
nation in this respect. 

• The average amount of British produce aud manufactures, aunuallj 
exported from this country, to the East Indies and China, from 1800 to 
1810, was ^1,218,535 ; and we are informed, from the beat authority, that 
no increase ia this demand tieed be expected,.. 



330 



APPENDIX. 



No. 12. 

BRITISH IMPORTS. 



Value of the Imports made into Great Britain, in the Years | 


ending 


the 5th January 1804, 1805, 1806, 1807, 1808, 


1809, 


1810, 1811 , 1812, and 1813, viz. 




Foreign 




EastIn- 






Years end- 


5c Colonial 


Irish 


DiAN and 


Total amount 


Computed 


ing the 5th 


produce. 


Produce. 


Chinese 


of the official 


real value. 


Januar}'. 


Official value. 


Official value. 


produce. 


value. 






£ . 


£ 


£ 


£ 


£ 


1804 


21,643,577 7 
23,986,896 J 


Including 


6,348,887 


27,992,464 




1805 


Irish produce. 


5,214,621 


29,201,517 


44,492,697 


1806 


21,292,870 


2,970,598 


6,072,160 


30,344,628 


42,595,154 


1807- 


21,841,005 


3,248,131 


3,746,771 


28,835,907 


44,615,715 


1808 


21,9.58,382 


3,491,767 


3,401,509 


28,854,658 


37,488,456 


1809 


19,869,723 


3,910,981 


5,848,649 


29,629,353 


51,133,063 


1810 


26,935,625 


3,475,759 


3,363,025 


33,772,409 




1811 


33,146,975 


3,280,747 


4,708,413 


41,136,135 




1812 


21,201,450 


3,318,979 


4,106,251 


28,626,580 




1813 


19,443,574 


Not. yet made 
up. 


Ditto. 


Ditto 






23431,807 




4,756,698 


30,932,627 


|42,336,943 


Average of 


} 










the official 


} 








Average of 


value. 


5 








1804 to 












1809. 



From the above official statement the value of our imports, 
exclusive of those received from Ireland, the real value of 
which amounts to about <£ 4, 500,000, may be computed to 
be about £ 38,000,000. 

According to No. 17 there appears to be 1,433,956 tons 
of shipping employed in the carriage of these imports ; and 
reckoning the freights or gross earnings of these ships at 
£9 per ton register, it appears that of this £38,000,000 
£12,905,554 has been made up of freight, viz. 
Earned by British ships, £801,408 a £9 per ton, £7,212,672 
Earned by foreign ships, £632,548 a ditto, £5,692,932 

£12,905,504 

Of this £7,212,672, earned by British ships, nearly 
£2,500,000 has been in the trade with our North-American 
colonies. — See remarks on No. 2. 



APPENDIX 



SSI 





No. 


13. 








BRITISH EXPORTS. j 


Value of the Exports made from Great Britain, in the Years 


ending the 5th January, 1804, 1805, 1806, 1807, 1808, 


1809, 1810, 1811, 1812, and 1813, viz. 




British pro- 






Total a 




Years end- 


duce and 


Foreign and 


Irish produce 


mount of 




ing the 5th 


manufac- 


colonial mer- 


and manufac- 


the official 


Real value. 


January. 


tures. 


chandize. 


ture. 


value. 






■ £ 


£ 


£ 


£ 


£ 


1804 


22,252,027 


9,326,468 } 


Including 


31,578.495 


51,109,131 


1B05 


23,935,793 


10,575,574 S 


Irish produce. 


34,451,367 


153,028,881 


1806 


25,004,337 


9,552,423 


398,085 


34,954,845 


150,482,661 


1807 


27,402,685 


8,789,368 


335,131 


36,527,184 


49,969,746 


1808 


25,171,422 


9,105,827 


289,322 


34,566,571 


66,017,712 


1809 


26,691,692 


7,397,901 


464,404 


34,554,267 




1810 


35,104,132 


14,680,514 


502,244 


50,286,900 


• 


1811 


34,923,575 


10,471,941 


474,r343 


+5,869,859 




1812 


24,131,734 


7,975,396 


302,54. 


32,409,671 




1813 


31,243,362 


11,508,673 


489,506 


43,241,541 




Average. 


27,586,075 


9,938,408 


406,944 


37,844,070 


54,122,626 

Average of 
1804 to 
1809 



332 



APPENDIX, 



No. 14. 
AMERICAN SHIPPING. 



A Stateraent of the Amount of the Tonnage of American 
Ships, exclusive of Ships of War, shewing the immense 
Increase which it has experienced from the Sacrifice 
which the British Government made of tiie Rights and 
Privileges of our Ship-Owners to the United States.f 


Ib the Year 


Value of Exports 


Ion-' of Shippia • 
owned by the 
United States. 


Number of 
Seamen. 




DoJlars. 


450,000 
939,000 

♦ 1433,000 

* 1,911,250 


27,000 

56,340 

♦ 86,848 

« 116,760, 


1790 

1800 

From Oct. 1805 

to April, 1808 'i 

being two years & > 

a half. i 


16,000,000 
62,000,000 
95,000,000 

•118,750,000 





Amount of the tonnage of the American shipping in 1808, 
exclusive of ships of war ----------- 

Amount of the tonnage of British shipping in 1808, exclusive 
of ships of wat, and those employed in the transport-service. 

Amount which the Amebican tonnage employed in"l 
trade exceeded that of the whole British shipping > 
owned in 1808, exclusive of that erapl^jyed by government j 



ions. 



1,911,250 
1.815,360 



95,890 



Those of the above numbers which are distinguished with 
ajn * are not from official documents, but calculated in that 
ratio of increase which the preceeding years indicate. Indeed, 
considering the very thriving state of the American shipping in 
1805, 1806, and the beginning of 1807, I have no doubt it is 
rather under than over-rated. 

In the above estimation, there is only 120,000 tons of ship- 
ping and 7,200 seamen added for the addition of Louisiana to 
the United States. But, from the shipping actually owned by 
this newly -acquired territory, and the ships which were built 
in the States in anticipation of this new source of commerce, 
the American shipping must have, no doubt, received a much 
greater addition from this French transaction than the amount 
which 1 have stated. 

t See the observations concerning their intercourse with our West- 
Indian Settlements,— on the opening of our colonies to their ships in general, — 
and oh the diflfercnt effects produced by the operation of theii and our coun* 
lervailing duties. 



APPENDIX. 



333 



No. 15. 

Gross Amount of the Tonnage of British Merchant 
Shipping. 



The Number of Vessels with the Amount of their Tonnage 


and the Number of Men and Boys annually employed in 


Navigating the same, which belonged to the several Ports 


of the British Empire,— to the Colonies as well as to the 


British Islands, on the 30th Sept. 1803, 1804, 1805, 


1806, 1807, 1808, 1809, 1810, 1811, and 1812, viz. 


Years ending 30 Sept. 


Ships. 


Tons. 


Men. 


1803 


19,828 


2,108,990 


148,600 


1804 


20,713 


2,210,508 


148,598 


1805 


§0,984 


^,226,636 


152,642 


1806 


21,106 


2,208,169 


150,940 


1807 


21,192 


2,224,720 


152,658 


1808 


21,542 


2,265,360 


151,781 


1809 


21,951 


2,307,489 


155,038 


1810 


22,577 


2,367,394 


158,779 


1811 


22,973 


2,415,619 


157,063 


1812 


22,996 


2;421,695 


159,710 


Average for the last > 
ten years - - ) 


21,586 2,227,658 

i 


153380 



Amount of our shipping in 1808, as stated above, that period 
being the commencement of the interruption of our Bsual 
commercial intercourse with the United States - - - - 

Deduct 450,000 tons, which may be about the amount em- 
ployed by government in the transport-service, &c. - - - 



Tom, 



2,265,360 



450,000 



Gross amount owned and employed for commercial and all 
other purposes, (except in the service of government,) both 
at home and abroad, — in coasting, fishing, foreign trade, 
kc. &c. throughout the empire = Tens 1,815,360 



334 



APPENDIX. 



No. 16. 

SHIPPING ANNUALLY ENTERED INWARDS. 



The Number of Vessels, with the Amount of their Tomiage, 
and the Number of Men and Boys employed in navigating 
the same, (including their respective Voyages,) which en- 
tered iNv^^AKDs at the Ports of Great Britain from all 
Parts of the World, including Ireland, the Islands of 
Jersey, Guernsey, and Man, and the Whale Fishe- 
ries, &c. in the Years 1790, 1791, 1792, 1799, 1800, 
1801, 1804, 1805, 1806, 1807, 1808, 1809, 1810, 
1811, 1812, and 1813 : viz. 


ar 
ending 
5th Ja- 
nuary. 


BRITISH. 


FOREIGN. 




Ships 


Tons. 


Men. 


Ships. 


Tons. 


Men. 


1790 
1791 
1792 
1799 
1800 
1801 
1804 
1805 
1806 
1807 
1808 
1809 
1810 
1811 
1812 
1813 


12,141 
12,494 
12,030 
10,517 
10,496 
10,347 
31,996 
10,508 
11,409 
12,110 
1 1,213 
11,316 
12,656 
13.557 
12,908 
13,869 


1,423,376 
1,452,498 
1,587,645 
1,575,169 
1,379,807 
1,378,620 
1,614,365 
1,395,387 
1,494,075 
1,482,412 
1,436,667 
1,314,241 
1,539,573 
1.609,588 
1.522,692 
1,579.715 


93,004 
82,979 
87,148 
88,963 
84,997 
82,7.54 
95,796 
102,900 
94,740 
96,371 


2,321 
2,686 
2,477 
3,012 
5,512 
5,497 
4,252 
4,271 
4,515 
3,792 
4,087 
1,925 
4,922 
6.876 
3.216 
2,536 


277,599 
321.684 
304,074 
476,596 
763,236 
780,155 
638,034 
607,299 
691,703 
612,800 
680,144 
282,892 
759,287 
1,176,243 
687,180 
518,443 


33,660 
30,744 
34,719 
31,346 
32.448 
15,512 
38,285 
60,094 
34,157 
25,519 


1,700,975 
1,774,182 
1,891,719 
2,051,765 
2,143,043 
2,158,775 
2,252,399 
2.002,686 
2,185,778 
2,095,212 
2,116,811 
1,597,133 
2,298,860 
2,785,831 
2,209,872 
2,098,158 


Aver- 
age of 
1804. 


12,154 


1,498.872 


90,965 


4,039 


665,403 


25,648 


2,164.274 



RECAPITULATION. ^ Tons. 

Total amount of British ships annually entered inwards in "> 

our trade with foreign parts, upwards of one-third of which has > 798,872 
of late been in the trade with our North-American colonies - j 

FoREiON SHIPS annually entered inwards in our trade with foreign ) -.^^ ^^^ 

pans ---------------»-- ^ ' 

Tons 1,463,274 
Amount annually, entered inwards from Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, > 700 ODO 



and Man, and the Whale Fisheries, about 



Gross amount, annually entered inwards, upon an average of the last 7 
tea years, as above -----_--.--- Tons J 2,164,27* 



APPENPIX. 



335 



No. 17. 

SHIPPING ANNUALLY CLEARED OUTWARDS. 



The Number of Vesse 


s, with the Amount of their Tonnage 


and the Number of 


Men employed in navigating the same. 


(including their repeated V oyages,) w hich cleared outwards | 


at 


the Ports of Great Britain to all Parts of the 1 


World, including 


Ireland, the Island 


s of Jersey, | 


Guernsey, and Man, and the Whale-Fisheries, &c. | 


m 


the Years 1790, 


1791, 1792, 1799, 1800, 1801, 1804, 1 


1805, 1806, 1807, 


1808, 1809, 1810, 1811, 1812, and | 


1813: viz. 




1 










1 


■o^-i 


Years 


BRITISH. 




FOREIGN. 1 


11^ 


ending 
5th Ja- 
























nuary. 
1790 


Ships. 


Tons. 


Men. 


Ships. 


Tons. 


Men. 


Total 
tonne 
Forei 
tish S 


12,560 


1,399,233 


1,130 


148,974 




1,548,207 


1791 


13,514 


1,511,294 




1,306 


184,729 




1,696,023 


1792 


13,391 


1,563,744 




1,138 


175,556 




1,739,300 


1799 


11,085 


1,302,551 




2,292 


414,774 




1,717,325 


1800 


11,866 


1,445,271 




4,893 


685,051 




2,130,322 


1801 


10,282 


1,345,621 




5,626 


804,880 




2,150,501 


1804 


11,072 


1,444,840 


92,943 


3,662 


574,542 


30,414 


2,019,382 


1805 


11,131 


1,463,286 


93,748 


4,093 


587,849 


30,507 


2,051,135 


1806 


11,603 


1 ,494,968 


94,388 


3,930 


605,641 


30,910 


2,100,609 


1807 


12,239 


1,485,725 


94,573 


3,457 


567,988 


29,616 


2,053,713 


1808 


11,428 


1,424,103 


89,715 


3,846 


631,910 


31.411 


2,056,013 


1809 


11,923 


1,372,810 


89,632 


1,892 


282,145 


15,671 


1,654,955 


1810 


12,490 


1,531,152 


192,5^3 


4,530 


699,750 


37,256 


2,230,902 


18J1 


.13,092 


1,624,274 


107,724 


6,641 


1,138,527 


60,870 


2,762,844 


1812 


12,774 


1,507,353 


96,739 


3.350 


696,234 


37,262 


2,203,587 


1813 


! 14,328 


1,665,578 


105,004 


2,647 


540,902 


27,841 


2,206,420 


•5 


12,208 


1,501,408 


105,898 


3,804 


632,548 


33,175 


2,133,956 



RECAPITULATION. 

Total amount of British ships annually cleared outwards in our 
trade with foreign parts, upwards of one-third of which 
late been in the trade with our North-American colonies 

Foreign ships annually cleared outwards in our trade with foreign ^ 
parts - 5 



in our 1 
has of y 



Tons. 



801,408 



632,548 



Carried forward 



Tons 1,433,956 



S36 APPENDIX. 



Brought forward Tons 1,433,956 

Amotint annually cleared outward for Ireland, Jersey, Guern- ) ^„^ ^^- 

sey, and Man, and the Whale Fisheries, about - \ 700,(W0 

Gross amount annually cleared outwards, upon an average of the 7 ai<=i*otnt 
last ten years, as above ... .^ .... .^ . Tons J '^'^^^ 

Thus it appears, that, of the gross amount of the ton- 
nage of British ships cleared outwards and entered inwards, 
in our trade with all parts of the world, (except Ireland, 
Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, and the whale fisheries,) 
beifag 801,408 tons, 250,000 to 300,000 tons (no less than 
the enormous proportion of one-third) has been of late in 
the trade with our North-x\merican provinces. 

It is, nevertheless, necessary here to observe, that, as there 
are considerable exports made from our North-American 
colonies to our West-Indian settlements and foreign countries, 
the amount, therefore, of tonnage cleared outward and en- 
tered inwards in our trade direct to these provinces, do not 
altogether shew so large a proportion as I have here stated. 
By minutely investigating the subject, however, it will be 
found that our Custom-house entries and clearances do not 
indicate the full extent to which our shipping is supported in 
the trade with our settlements in North America. 

Regarding the tonnage which is cleared out from the ports 
of our North-American provinces to our West-Indian settle- 
ments and foreign countries, these provinces must, with refer- 
ence to the proportionate amount of our tonnage employed in 
foreign trade, which they support, in justice be put to 
their credit. For it is to be observed that British ships are 
only employed, and therefore were these exports not made 
it is evident we must employ proportionably a smaller amount 
of tonnage. 

For instance, it sometimes happens that ships are cleared 
out from tliis country to the West Indies to take pro- 



APPENDIX. 337 



duce from our settlements there to Quebec (or other parts 
of our provinces in North America,) and Canadian pro- 
duce from thence back to the West Indies, and then West- 
India produce to Great Britain. 

Now, although, in the list of ships cleared outwards 
and entered inwards in the trade of this country, none of 
such vessels appear cleared out for the British North- 
American provinces, yet such ships as evidently receive, 
employment from the exports made from and the imports 
made into these provinces, as if they had been cleared out- 
wards and entered inwards upon voyages direct between them 
and Great Britain. 

Supposing that a voyage direct to the West Indies and 
back should be six months, and that its being extended to 
Quebec, as above, should lengthen it to twelve,* and that the 
freight for each of these parts of the voyage should be £9 
per ton ; in that case the ship would have only earned £9 
per ton in a trip to the West Indies and back ; but, in pro- 
tracting the voyage to Quebec, her earnings would be £18 
per ton. In such cases, although no ships are cleared out 
for or entered inwards from Canada, yet it is evident that 
that colony is entitled to credit for having afforded employ- 
ment to half the amount of tonnage so employed. 

In estimating, therefore, the extent to which our North- 
American colonies contribute to the support of that part of 
our shipping which is employed in foreign trade we must be 
more guided by the amount of tonnage which is cleared 
out with their exports than by the amount of tonnage cleared 
outward and entered inward in our trade direct with these 
provinces. 



* To extend the voyage, by going to Quebec as here supposed, instead of 
»ix, it would not add to it more than four months, although, for the sake 
of perspicuity in elucidating the point under consideration, I have suppo- 
sed the two parti of the voyage equal. 



538 



APPENDIX. 



No. 18. 

Amount of Fish exported from the British Colonies in North America, in the 
Years 1805, 1806, 1807, and 1808. 





1805. 


1806. 


1807. 


1808. 




Cwts. 


Cwts. 


Cwts. 


Cwts. 


From Newfoundland - - 


536,860 


707,967 


536,128 


582,036 


From the other Colonies - 


190,840 


238,799 


ga8,229 


248,544 


Cwts. 


727,700 


946,766 


764,357 


830,579 



Average exported in these four Years. 

C^ts. 

From Newfoundland _-_--- - 590,748 

From the other Colonies -.--_---.,--- 226,603 



Gross average of the exports of fish from the British Colomes 

in North America, in 1805, 1806, 1807, and 1308 - - - 817,351 

Deduct the annual demand from our West-Indian Settlements - 456,221 

Surplus, for which our Merchants and American Colonists would 
have had to find a market, even had they supplied the whole 
demand of our West-Indian Possessions ----- Cwt. 361.130 



A Statement of the average Quantity of Fish imported into our West- Indian 
Settlements, in the Years 1805, 1806, and 1807, being up to the Com- 
mencement of the Restrictions which the Americans imposed upon their 
Commercial Intercourse with this Country and her Colonies, distinguishing 
the Countries from whence imported. 

Cwts. 

From the United Kingdom 97,486 

From the British American Colonies --------- 170,610 

From the United States - 188,125 

Average amount of the demand for these three years - Cwt. 456,221 



Of this demand from our West-Indian Settlements, amounting to 456,221 
cwt. it appears that 97,486 has been furnished by the Mother-Country, 
leaving 358,735, which should have been supplied from our own American 
fisheries. But, strange and unaccountable as it may appear, although our 
fisheries produced 817,351 cwt. and, from their discouraged state, were 
capable of the greatest improven^ent, yet the British government encou- 
raged the Americans to supply 188,125 cwt. of this 358,735, whilst, from 
their impolitic measures, they so cramped this valuable branch of trade 
from our American Colonies, that only j 70,610 was supplied from our 
fisheries in that quarter. 



N.B. 



-The above statements are made out from the following authentic 
document : 



APPENDIX. 339 



(A. ) 

Estimate of Qui7itals of Fish exported from the British Colonies in North America and 
Newfoundland, in the Years 1805, 1806, 1807, and 1808. 

Quintals, or 
Cwt. qrs. lb, 

1805. D?T/ Fish - - - Cod **... 623,908 

Salmon, 17,491, of 5 lb. each = - - - 780 3 li 

Herrings, 8,178 boxes, 6 lb. each = - - - 438 12 

Pichled Fish 57,441 casks, 200 lb. each = - - 102,573 24 



Quintals, or Cwt. 727,700 19 



1806, Dry Fish - - - Cod 804,819 

Salmon, 17,638, of 5 lb. each =r - - - - 787 1 18 

Herrings, 10,388 boxes, 6 lb. each =- - - - 556 2 o 

Pichled Fish - 78,738 casks, 200 lb. each = - - 140,603 2 8 



Quintals, or Cwt. 946,766 1 26 

1807. Dry Fish Cod 631,537 

Salmon, 12,653, of 5 lb. each = - - - - 564 3 13 

Herrings, 12,666 boxes, 6 lb. each r= - - - 678 2 4 

Pichled Fish 73,683 casks, 200 lb. each = - - 131,576 3 4 



Quintals, or Cwt. 764;357 21 



1808. Dry Fish - - - Cod 695,794 

Salmon, 2,441, of 5 lb. each = - - - 118 3 25 

Herrings, 15,716 boxes, 6 lb. each c= - - - 841 3 i.'0 

PichltdFish - - 74,942 casks, 2001b. each = - - 133,825 



Quintals, or Cwt. 830,579 3 17 



(B. ) 

Estimate of Quintals of Fish impohted into the British West'Indian Islands, in the Years 
1805, 1806, 1807, and 1808. 

Quintals, or 
Cwt. qrs. lb. 

1805. Dry Fish 220,357 

In 986 barrels of 100 lb. each = 880 1 12 

Pichled Fish 97,263 barrels of 200 lb. each = - - - 164,755 1 12 



Quintals, or Cwt. 385,992 2 24 



1806. Dry Fish 268,130 

In 729 barrels of 100 lb. each = 650 3 16 

Pickled Fish - - - 142,264 barrels of 2001b. each = - - - 254,042 3 12 

Quintals, or Cwt. 522,823 3 



1807. Dry Fish 239,068 

In 1,281 barrels of 100 lb. each s= 1,143 3 

Picldtd Fish - - - 116,040 barrels of 2001b. each =5 - - - 207,214 1 4 



Quintals, t)r Cwt. 447,426 4 

1808. Dry Fish 190,577 O 

In 3,912 barrels of 1001b. euch = 3,492 3 12 

Pichled Fish - - - 112,247 barrels of 2001b. each = - - - 200,441 8 



Quintal*, or Cwt. 394,510 3 20 
a 2 



340 



APPENDIX. 



( C. ) 

Comparative Statement of Fisa (dnj and pickled) exported from the British North- American 
Colonies and Newfoundland to alt Parts; and oj Fish (dry and pickled) impopi ed into the 
British West -Indian Islands from the said Colonies, Newfoundland, the United Kingdom, and 
the United States of America, during the Years 1805, 1806, 1807, and 1808. 



Fish exported to all parts from > 
the British North- American > 
Colonies & Newfoundland J 

Fish imported from all parts ^ 
into the British West Indies 5 

Excess Cwt. 


1805. 


1806. 


1807. 


1808. 


Quintals, or 
Cwt. qrs.lb. 

727,700 19 
385,992 2 24 


Quintals, or 
Cwt. qrs.lb. 

946,766 1 26 
522.823 3 


Quintals, or 
Cwt. qrs.lb. 

764,357 21 
447,426 4 


Quintals, or 
Cwt. qrs.lb. 

830,579 3 17 
394,510 3 20 


341,708 1 23 


423,942 2 26 


316,931 17 


436.268 3 25 



The three preceding statements are made up from the Accounts (D.) and (E.) which were 
obtained from the Custom- House, in October, 1809, and when the returns of the exporti 
from the King's North- American Colonies for the last year are produced, they will shew the 
competency, as well as the exertions of the British American Colonists, in a more conspicuous 
manner than in any former year. 

London, April 12, 1810. 

Printed by order of the Committee of Merchants "^ 
interested in the trade and fisheries of his Ma- > 
jesty's North -American Colonies - - - - 3 

NATHANIEL ATCHESON, Secretary. 



( D. ) 

An Account of dry and pickled Fish imported into the British West Indies, in the Years 
1805, 1806, 1807, and 1808. 



Fish, Dry, 
From 

The United Kingdom - 

The British Continental Colonies 
The United States 



rotal imports of Dry Fish 



1805. 



Bar. 

237 
501 
148 



986 



Quintals. 

2,774 

99,532 

118,051 

220,357 



1806. 



Bar 

365 

12 

352 



729 



Quintals. 

4,637 

113,937 

149,556 



268,130 



1807. 



Bar, 
636 
181 
464 

1,281 



Quifitals. 

6,910 

128,154 

105,004 

239,068 



1808. 



Bar. 

49 

3,194 

669 



,912 



Quintals 
31,8031 

147,1001 
11,67^ 

190,5771 



Fish, Pickled, 

From 

The United Kingdom - - - - - 

The British Continental Colonies 

The United States 



rotal imports of Pickled Fish 



180.5. 



Barrels. 
48,829 
23,580 
24,854 



97,263 



1806. 



Barrels. 
55,306 
36,741 
50,217 



142,264 



1807. 



Barrels. 
50,386 
34,305 
31,349 



116,040 



1808. 



Barrels. 

54.023 

53,833 

4,391 



112,247 



CusTOM-HousE, Lor^don, Oct. 20, 1809. 



APPENDIX. 



341 



(E. ) 

An Account of the Quantity <f Dry and Pickled Cod, and of all other Kinds of Yisn 
EXPORTED from Canada, Nova-Scotia, New Brunswick, Cape-Breton^ Prince Edward's 
Island, and Newfoundland, in the Years 1805, 1806, 1807, and 1808, distinguishing each 
Year. 



1805. Canada .--.-.-- 
Nova-Scotia 

New Brunswick - - - - 

Cape-Breton- - - - - 
Prince Edward's Island 
Newfoundland- - - - ^ 

Total 

1806. Canada 

Nova-Scotia- 

New Brunswick - - - - 

Cape-Breton 

Prince Edward's Island 
Newfoundland 

Total - - - 

1807. Canada 

Nova-Scotia 

New Brunswick 

Cape-Breton 

Prince Edward's Island 
Newfoundland- 

Total - - - 

1808. Canada - - 

Nova-Scotia .---.- 

New Brunswick 

Cape-Breton- 

Prince Edward's Island 
Newfoundland 

Total 


Con. 


Sat M 




■Rtttjo 




Mack- 
erel. 

Casks. 
59 

59 


Dry. 


Pckled* 






Quintal. 

1,770 

70,350 

8,870 

16,538 

526,380 


Casks. 

29,504 

437 

11 

1,205 

31,157 


j\o. 
Sm'ked 

596 
16,895 

17,491 


Casks. 

731 

1 

1,174 

3,882 
5,788 


Boxes. 
Sm'ked 

8,178 
8,178 


Casks. 

53 

1,446 

18,149 

789 
20,437 


623,908 


1,316 
85,410 

11,023 
7,872 

699,198 


1.527 

44.949 

240 

7 

1,304 

48,027i 

i 

275 

51,359 

!^02 

7 

1,333 

53,176 


100 

972 

16,566 

17,638 

388 

12,265 

12,653 

604 
1,812 

2.^ 
2,441 


359 

280 

4,660 

2,662 
7,961 

28 

11 

1,538 

2,669 
4,246 


10,388 


100 

1,.532 
19,173 

52j 

1,136 


709 
39 

9 


804,819 

150 

87,824 

13,654 

4,721 

525,188 

631,537 


10,388 


21,993 


757 


12.666 



12,566 


111 
13,975 

2,080 
16,166 


3 

92 


95 

349 
44 

157 


800 
97,962 

22,244 
5,034 

569,754 

695,794 


154 

42,567 

153 

587 

1,792 


346 

1 

«,815 

100 

2,2.53 

5,515 


15,687 

29 


484 

248 

20,215 

17 

2,660 


45,253 


15,716 


23,6a 


550 



CusTOM-HousE, London, Oct. 20, 1809. 



INDEX. 



America, thoroughly aware of the value and growing impor- 
tance of our colonies upon her frontiers, shapes her 
course accordingly, 8. 

, her jealousy and alarm at seeing the immense 

extent of her territory along the Canadian frontier just 
emerging from a dreary wilderness into a fine fertile 
country, excited by her knowing that the whole profits 
and advantages to be derived from its commerce must 
result to the British, whilst they hold possession of the 
St. Laurence, 20. 

• , the extensive means she possesses foi" fitting out a 

navy, 174. 

-, a reformation in the abuses in our commercial 

arrangements with her a duty which has fallen to the 
lot of the ministers of the present day, 292. 

, her rapid growth and immense resources, ibid. 

, her vast population, 293. 

— -' -, the enormous increase in her exports, ibid. 

, her immense shipping, ibid. 

, the vast acquisition of territory she has acquired 

without either an army or a navy, but merely by her 
threatenings and artful negotiations, ibid. 

Americans, their reasons for conceiving this the most favour- 
able opportunity ever likely to occur for wresting the 
Canadas from Great Britain, 13, 



344 INDEX. 



Americans, the British government at a loss how to rank 
them in the list of foreigners, and, in her dilemma, 
unfortunately placed them, in many respects, even 
upon a much more favourable footing than either British 
colonists, British ship-owners, or British merchants, 
85, 86. 

, during our last war with them, almost without 

an army, beat us out of the field, and, without a navy, 
have ever since awed us into tame submission to the 
grossest violation of our maritime laws, 173. 

so much our superiors at negotiation that the 



result of all our treaties and commercial regulations 
with them have been the injury and sacrifice both of the 
British provinces and of the British shipping, 282. 

American shipping has been reared and supported principally 
by a sacrifice of the rights and privileges of British 
ship-owners, 174. 

, ^ one of its principal sources of support 

has been the exportation of deals and boards, 177. 
amount of (No. 14.) 332. 



American independence ought to have secured to our re- 
maining American colonies a multiplicity of privileges 
and advantages, but, by our impolitic measures, it 
was a death-blow to their prosperity, 195. 

Agriculture, stale of, 52. 

, means which would promote the extension of, 

to the waste and unsettled lands in Canada, 222. 

Agricultural improvements, those of which the land now 
under cultivation is capable, 225. 

Agricultural produce, a list of that exported from the 
Canadas, (No, 1.) 300. 

Atcheson, Mr. extracts from his Collection of Reports, re- 
specting the impolicy of opening the ports of our 
West-India islands to the ships of the United States, 
79. 

■ — , regarding the hostile measures adopted by the 

United States against our commerce, 82, 112, 116. 

J concerning the impropriety of exempting the 



Americans from an alien or countervailing duty, &c. 
120. 

respecting the propriety of charging a coun- 



tervailing duty equal to that charged by America, 128. 



INDEX. 345 



British North-American provinces, their marking features 
constitute a subject of the most interesting conse- 
quence, 2. 

, their important proper- 
ties, &c. 11. 

-j the rapid improvement of. 



has greatly excited the jealousy of the American govern- 
ment and urged them on to the present war, 12. 

i the geographical position 



of, 14. 

■ , the important advantages 

which their extended frontier bordering upon the United 
States affords to British commerce, 18. 

, their extent of coast 

navigable or accessible to ships from sea, greater than 
that similarly navigable belonging to the United 
States, previous to her taking possession of Louisiana, 
26. 

^ tlieij. fishing coast^ &c. 

31. 

, their soil, climate, inha- 
bitants, state of agriculture, exports, &c. 36. 

reasons why they have 



not hitherto supplied our West-India colonies with 
flour, provisions, lumber, <&c. 92. 

-, their extensive, valuable. 



and improveablcj resources, 169. 

-, of greater importance to 



the mother-counti-y now than the colonies which she 
lost at the conclusion of the last American war was to 
her at that period, 172. 

— — — , their capability of sup- 
plying the mother-country and her West-Indian posses- 
sions with lumber, 180. 

•, American independence 



which ought to have secured to them a multiplicity of 
advantages, was, by our own impolitic measures, rather 
a death-blow to their prosperity, 195. 

capable of supplying 



our West-Indian settlements with flour, bread, grain, 
provisions, &c. 199. 

--;- , the most important colo- 
nies we possess aod therefore are entitled to an adequate 



346 INDEX. 



share of those means which we possess for the protec- 
tion of our colonies in general, 236. 

British North-American provinces, their great superiority 
compared with our Asiatic possessions, 297. 

— -' ' , their vast importance, 

from constituing a door of access by which our manu- 
factures can be introduced into the States over her most 
rigid prohibitory measures, 295. 

British commerce, the great facilities which it must receive, 
from the extended frontier by which our American 
colonies and the United States communicate with each 
other, 18. 

British government, in many respects, been actually legisla- 
ting in favour of the United States, 7. 

, her measures better calculated to pro- 
mote the interests of the Americans than that of her 
own colonists, 10. 

her singular conduct in persevering in 



her endeavours to purchase the friendship of the Ame- 
ricans by mean submission and concession, 110. 

— merchants insulted by the British government, by 

being told, at the same time that the Americans had the 
ports of our East-Indian settlements open to them, that 
their being granted the like privilege would endanger 
the safety of our whole Asiatic possessions, 86 

Canada, reasons why the American government conceived 
this the most favourable opportunity for wresting it 
from Great Britain, 13. 

-, geographical position of, 14. 

, the quality of its soil — mry superior, 37, — 224, 

, its climate, 41. 

, description of its inhabitants, 46. 

-, population of, 47. 

, state of agriculture in, 52. 

— . , acres of cleared land which it contains, 56. 

— — — 'y amount of grain produced in, 58. 

— , principal articles exported from, 69. 

, capable of producing hemp and flax sufficient for 

the supply of the mother-country, 230. 

• , wherein its danger consits, 238. 

in what its safety consists, ibid. 



Canadian cultivators, their attachments to old established 
practices might be as easily removed as the local preju- 
dices of the people of any other country, 228. 



INDEX. 347 



Canadians, their loyalty and patriotism of great importance in 
the defence of the Canadas^ 240. 

Canadian possessions, risking them almost unprotected as 
we have hitherto done, calculated to excite the disaffec- 
tion of their loyal inhabitants, 294. 

Coast, navigable extent of, 25. 

— — , one of the most important properties which charac- 
terize any country, ihid. 

Colonies, the loss which we sustained in these by the last 
American war, occasioned by the extravagant contempt 
in which our government held the Americans as an ene- 
my, 237. 

Commerce, British, — the great and important facilities 
which it must receive from the extended frontiers by 
which the British North-x4merican colonies communi- 
cate with the United States, 18. 

, Privy-councii system of, 142. 

Commercial greatness of Great Britain derived from the 
superior excellence of the British constitution, ihid. 

Countervailing duties, the enormous advantages allowed the 
Americans in those charged by them and us respec- 
tively, 119. 

^ have neither for their object the gene- 
ral policy of the importation of the goods which con- 
stitute the subject, nor the fund which they furnish, but 
are specifically intended to affect the ships so as to se- 
cure the government charging them the carriage of the 
goods, 120. 

■, that charged by the British government 



22</. per ton, and that by the American government c£3 
per ton, for the protection of their shipping respectively, 
— a diherence of 3,300 per cent, allowed in favour of 
America, 125. 

-, ours known to exist only by embellish- 



ing an act of parliament, or by the prominent feature 
they formed in a compilation oi our custom-house du- 
ties : but the Americans were known to exist by their ope- 
ration, — by promoting the prosperity of her shipping, 
and crushing ours, 132. 

— , British, a Table of, 316. 

, American, a Table of, 318. 

, the data by which they were regula- 
ted by the British and Americans, extremely fa- 



348 INDEX. 



vourable to America, and proportionably ruinous to 
British shipping, 319. 

Duties, United States produce admitted by proclamation at 
the same rate of, as the produce of our own colonies, 79. 

Deals, Quebec, their dimensions, 175. 

— , the manufacture and exportation of, from Canada, 
of great importance, and capable of great improve- 
ment, 176. 

Englishmen, humiliating circumstance of their being obliged 
to be metamorphosed into Yankies, merely to gain the 
confidence of the British government, 87. 

Enemies produce, the mischievous effects of our almost un- 
limited importation of, 150. 

, every species of, of which we could ob- 
tain sufficient supplies from our own colonies and 
friendly nations ought to be prohibited, 152. 

the three classes under which it ought to 



be arranged, either for regulating its prohibition or im- 
portation, 156. 

Exports, Canadian, a list of for the last ten years, 300. 

, — ^ value of, in the years 1806 and 1810, 

shewing their vast increase in these four years, 304. 

, value of, from our North-American provinces for 

five years, 310. 

, to our American colonies and the United States con- 



trasted, 328. 

British, to all parts, value of, 331, 



Fisheries, those of Labradore, Newfoundland, the numerous 
islands in the gulph of St. Laurence, Sic. secured and 
protected only by the possession of Canada and our 
other American provinces, 30. 

, in British America contribute greatly to our mari- 
time power and independence, 3. 

Fish, quantity of, annually exported from the British Ame- 
rican colonies, 290. 

-, quantity of, annually exported from Newfoundland, 338. 

— , quantity of, annually exported from the other colonies, 
except Newfoundland, ibid. 

— , quantity of, annually consumed in the British settle- 
ments in the West Indies, 289. 

Flour and provisions carried from the very banks of the St. 
Laurence to the ports of the United States, to be 



INDEX. 34^ 



shipped by American ships to our West-Indian settle- 
ments, 206. 

-, the means which might be rendered ef- 



fectual for drawing a quantity of, from the United- 
States side of the St. Laurence, sufficient for the supply 
of our West-Indian settlements, and thereby secure the 
carriage of them to our own ships, 219. 
Frontiers, the extent of, by which the British North- American 
provinces and the United States have now begun to meet, 
upwards of 1200 miles. The advantages to be derived 
from this circumstance, 20. 
Flax, method of cultivating it in Canada. Good crops 
generally produced, but destroyed in the management, 
60. 
■ — -T-, were each farmer in Canada to raise only an acre of, for 
exportation, a quantity sufficient to supply the demand 
of the mother-country would be thereby produced, 234. 
Geographical position of our North-American provinces, 14. 
Government, the British, have not only been countenanced 
by the country in general in making sacrifices to Ame- 
rica, but have been almost invariably urged on to 
further concessions, 287. 
Grain, quantity produced in Canada, 58. 
Hemp, failure of the attempts hitherto made to introduce its 
cultivation in Lower Canada accounted for, 63. 

. , failure of the Canadians in their attempts to raise 

it, occasioned by their ignorance of the management 
of it in particular, and the want of success of tiiose 
Avho have pretended to instruct them has arisen from 
an ignorance of agriculture in general, 64. 

only one acre of, cultivated by each farmer in 



Canada, would produce a quantity sufficient to sup- 
ply the mother-country, 234. 

Imports, of British manufactures, &c. into our North- 
American colonies, value of, 311. 

, British, from all parts, value of. The proportion 

of these which is made up of the freight of British 
ships, and how much of this freight in the trade with 
our American colonies, 328. 

Indians, they neither esteem us because we are British, 
nor hate our enemies merely because they are Ameri- 
cans ; but, as well as civilized nations, must Irive 
more solid considerations for their friendship, 241. 



350 INDEX. 



Indians, the circumstances which secure to us their friendly 
alliance, 241, 242. 

, the nation greatly indebted to the North-West- 
Company for the friendly disposition of, 243. 
-, their alliance in the last American war, had it not 



been for the culpable ignorance of our negotiators 
would have secured to us what now constitues one of 
the richest and best portions of the United States, 244. 

Lords of the Committee of Privy Council, their observa- 
tions regarding the United States, recommending a 
paroper respect being paid to the laws of the land, and 
an observance of the rules adhered to by other nations, 
in prohibiting the ships of foreign countries from en- 
tering the ports of our colonies, 79, 80. 

Lumber, the Americans, restrictions upon their own com- 
merce, and Buonaparte's continental system, have fully 
convinced us of the capability of our provinces in 
North America to supply, not only our West-Indian 
possessions, but also the mother-country with that 
article, 187. 

, the low duty charged in Great Britain upon that 

imported from America, has greatly encreased the 
American shipping, and proportionably crushed the 
growth of ours, 113. 

, the absurdity of our ever having admitted, the 

high freight to which that of America, on account of 
distance, is liable, as a plea for a diminution of duty, 
140. 

'— , capability of the British North-American colonies 

to supply the mother-country and all her other colo- 
nies with, 180. 

the increase which the Canadian exports of, ex- 



perienced in only four years, equal to the supply of our 
West-Indian settlements, 184. 

Licensing system, 142. 

Licence, destructive effects of our almost unlimited impor- 
tations of enemies produce by, 150. 

Louisiana, the impolicy of which our government has been 
guilty, in allowing the Americans to take possession 
of, 248. 

—■ , taken possession of by the Americans, in trust for 

Buonaparte, 267. 



INDEX. 351 



Louisiana, its value to us greatly enhanced by its contiguity 
with our West- Indian islands ; by the door it would 
open for the introduction of our manufactures, both 
into the tFnited States and Mexico, 268. 

— , by possessing it and the Canadian provinces, 

our territory would completely surround the United 
States, and thereby place at our disposal the whole 
Indian force, by which we could keep the Americans 
in check, almost without the aid of British troops, 269. 
the act of our taking possession of, would be 



attended with so many important advantages to the in- 
habitants as would secure their firm attachment to our 
interest, 270. 

Manufactures, our exports of, important to the nation at 
large, in proportion to their great value, but of com- 
paratively small consequence to our ship-owners in 
proportion to the smallness of their tonnage, 191. 

Marking-features which constitute the essential character 
of our North-American colonies, 2. 

Ministers allowed America to gain more by negotiation, 
in making the last peace with her, than she had gained 
by a bloody contest of seven years, 247. 

-, being at last sensible of the impolicy of further 
concession to America began to retract, 288. 

, have not only been countenanced in making sa- 
crifices to the United States, but have been also invariably 
urged on to the most mean and submissive concessions 
to them, 287. 

■ , in attempting to reform the abuses in our trade 

with the United States have been assailed both by the op- 
position in parliament, who have been the constant ad- 
vocates of the Americans, and by the clamour of an 
interested party from various parts of the country, 
289. 

Nova Scotia, geographical position of, 14. 

New Brunswick, ditto ditto, ibid. 

, and Nova Scotia, their principle articles 

of export, 70. 

Navigable coast of the British North- American provinces, 
25. 

, compared with the coast of the United 

States, 26. 

Navigation of the St. Laurence and the Lakes, the advan- 
tage to be derived from it, 22. 



352 INDEX, 



Navigation, the principal source from whence flows the 
riches and independence of nations, 25. 

Navigation-laws, relaxation of, to the United States, by 
opening the ports of our colonies to their ships, 78. 

. — , the suspension of, by the act of 23 Geo. 

III. c. 39, as far as related to the United States, placed in 
the power of the Privy Council, who, by vhtue of this 
act, have persevered io a shameful system of concession 
to the American government ever since, 79. 

North- West-Company, the British nation in a great mea- 
sure indebted to that establishment for the friendly 
alliance of the Indians, 243. 

Negotiators, the enormous sacrifice of the British interest 
made by those appointed to conduct our negotiations 
in making the last peace with America, 245. 

Oak Timber, quality of, &c. 169. 

— — , quantity of, exported annually from Quebec, 

sot), 309. 

, quantity of, used in Great Britain, for all 



maritime purposes, 323. 

Pine, yellow and red, their quality, &c. 173. 

Quebec, ships built at, the great difference in the quality of, 
accounted for, 171. 

St. Laurence, the river of, must be the channel of the trade 
of all that immense extent of American territory upon 
its south banks, just emerging from a dreary wilder- 
ness into a fine fertile country, — its importance to Great 
Britain on that account, 20. 

— ^ the river of, a few of the advantages re- 
sulting to Great Britain, from the navigation of it, 
and the chain of lakes which it unites, 22. 

, the natural channel for the trade of all that 



vast fertile country upon the banks of it and its lakes,— 
nothing short of the confused and vacillating disposi- 
tion of all our concerns in that quarter, as has hitherto 
existed, will prevent our reaping the whole profit of the 
commerce of that country, 205. 

Ships, Quebec-built, the difference in their quality and 
the variety of opinions respecting that circumstance 
accounted for, 171. 

, British, a table shewing the amount of the tonnage 

of, annually built in Great Britain, 323. 

. —.^^ the amount of the tonnage of, annually 

cleared out from Quebec, for fourteen years, 324, 



INDEX. 353 



Ships, British, the amount of the tonnage of, cleared out 

from the whole ports of British North^America, for 

five years, its great amount, 324. 
Shipping, and commerce, our enormous sacrifice of, to the 

United States, lb, 
■ .■ ■ , American, one of the principal sources of its 

support has been the exportation of deals and boards, 

177. 

American, a table shewing the amount of the 



tonnage of, which exceeds that of the British merchant 
shipping, except that employed by government, 332. 

-, British, depends principally upon our imports for 

support, 191. 

, merchant, the gross amount of, 333. 

, a table shewing the amount of, annually entered 

inwards, at the ports of Great Britain, from all parts 
of the world ; shewing also, what proportion was from 
foreign ports, and how much of this British ; and also, 
what proportion in the trade with our American colo- 
nies, 334. 

, a table shewing the amount of, annually cleared 

outwards from Great Britain to all parts of the world ; 
shewing also, what the proportion to foreign ports 
amounted to, and how much of this cleared out to 
foreign ports was British, and, likewise, what propor- 
tion of it to our North-American colonies, 335. 

, upwards of one-third of all the British shipping 

cleared out to foreign parts, supported by the trade 
with our North-American provinces, ihid. 

Ship-owners, British, the great disadvantage under which 
they labour from the high price of their ships in any 
competition with foreigners for freight, 163, 320. 

Ship-wrights and sailors, British, by a scheme founded by 
American wisdom, foresight, and low cunning, upon 
British imbecility and pusillanimity for turning over the 
British shipping to America, have been sent to the 
United States to build and man the American shipping^ 
286. JP 

Soil of the Canadas, quality of, 37. 

Statesman, the subjects with which he should be acquainted 
to enable him to negotiate to advantage concerning our 
American colonies, 3. 
Staves, American, at this very moment only chargeable at 

a' a 



354 INDEX. 



one-third the duty which is charged upon those imported 
from countries in the strictest amity with us, 117. 
Staves, Quebec, an important item of the Canadian exports 
of lumber, 178. 

, their quality considered, in the London mar- 
ket, equal to that of those imported from Dantzic, ibid, 
quantity of, exported from Quebec, 179. 



Timber, the low duty charged in Great Britain, upon that 
imported from America, has greatly increased the Ame- 
rican shipping, and proportionably crushed the growing 
prosperity of our own, 113. 

, the absurdity of our ever having admitted the high 

freight of that of America is liable, on account of dis- 
tance, as a plea for a diminution of duty, 140. 

, capability of the British North-American colonies to 

supply the mother-country and all her other colonies 
with, 180. 

, Canadian exports of, increased five-fold in the 

course of four years, 182. 
-, the increase which the Canadian exports of, experi- 



enced in only four years equal to the supply of our 
West-Indian settlements, 184. 

Talleyrand, his description of the fertility and other valua- 
ble properties of Louisiana, terms the river Mississippi 
the Nile of America, 248. 

— — — ^, extract from a pamphlet which he wrote, stimu- 
lating the government of his country to take measures 
for securing the possession of Louisiana, 249. 

Trident, our government systematically yielding it up, by 
mean concession, to the Americans, who, being thereby 
encouraged to attempt wresting it from us by force, 
have thereby saved it to us for the present, 286, 287. 

United States government, reasons why they conceived this 
the most favourable opportunity for wresting the Cana- 
das from Great Britain, 13. 

-~ — , produce of, admitted into Great Britain at the 

same rate of duties as the produce of our own colo- 
nies, 108. 

her immense territory, her extensive shipping. 



^il%. 



and the vast magnitude and increase of her resources in 
general, deserve our serious attention, as well as the late 
overgrown pov.er of Buonaparte upon the continent of 
Europe, 275-0, 



INDEX. 355 



United States, her sea-coast and maritime faculties equal to 
those of Fi-auce, Holland, Germany, Russia, Sweden, 
Denmark, and Russia, both with respect to extent and 
the number of people lately employed in maritime af- 
fairs,- 277-8. 

■ ■■, the people of, before the commencement of 

the present hostilities, have been by our government 
put upon a more favourable footing with us than our 
true and faithful Canadian colonists, whose blood and 
treasure were and are at this very moment chearfuUy 
sacrificed to the salvation of our Canadian provinces, 
280. 

West-Indian colonies, reasons why our American provinces 
have not hitherto supplied them with flour, lumber, 
&c. 92. 

West Indies, British settlements in, a table shewing their 
annual demand for lumber, flour, fish, provisions, &c. 
and by whom furnished, — by whose ships carried, and the 
diminutive proportion carried by British ships, 321, 



THE END. 






Marchant and Galabin, Printers, Ingram-Court, London. 



